The Fisherman 1926

Max Liebermann made this image of ‘The Fisherman’ using charcoal, or something like it. You can really see the movement and pressure in the strokes. For me, that is so much of what artmaking is about, a record of a process, almost like forensic evidence. The texture is amazing – that scratchy, dry, almost crumbling quality of charcoal. The way the marks sit on the surface gives it a real physicality. Look at the tree, it’s not just a tree, it’s a collection of jabs and scribbles. It’s kind of abstract and realistic at the same time. It’s like Liebermann is thinking about the thing itself and also how to depict it. I love that back and forth, that sense of questioning. You can see a similar approach in the work of Käthe Kollwitz, a contemporary of Liebermann. Both were interested in the possibilities of drawing as a medium for exploring both form and feeling, and how those two things are always related.