Recto: Phantasie und Künstler (Imagination and the Artist); Verso: Studie zu Phantasie und Künstler (Study for Imagination and the Artists) 1873

Curator: Here we have Max Klinger's “Imagination and the Artist,” a drawing and print from 1873 currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s also got a study for the same idea on the back, which is interesting. Editor: Well, I'll tell you, the immediate impression is a kind of dreamlike quality. All those wispy lines create a very ethereal feel, like drifting through a memory. Curator: Exactly! Klinger was definitely into symbolism, and you see that Romantic leaning with its touch of history-painting too. He really tries to depict this abstract concept visually. You’ve got the artist, and this winged figure carrying him aloft, which I suppose represents the flights of fancy involved in art-making. Editor: The figures, to me, evoke classic statuary... but then surrounded by chaos. What's that fellow doing in the boat there being chased by a dolphin, or other sea creature? It gives it a darker undertone, maybe indicating struggle, as if this glorious creative path also carries the artist into dangerous, uncontrolled emotional waters. Curator: Interesting point. Perhaps it is less glorifying, and more cautionary. The iconography includes symbols of high art like a classical sculpture. But then there's also imagery of swirling turmoil. I find it curious he titled it this way; not ‘Art’ alone, but ‘The Artist,’ so perhaps he is looking into the toll the journey takes. Editor: And I think the sketchiness itself is significant. It's not a polished, finished product; it's an exploration. This unfinished character adds to the emotional authenticity of the work; it says it is about a messy creative journey, more than a polished creative moment. Curator: Right, it invites us into Klinger's own creative process. It is a study in progress, in thought, captured right on the page and maybe hints at the anxiety of creating something, putting something down which exposes the vulnerable self. Editor: So, not just imagination as a muse, but the messy process behind turning a thought into something real and out in the world. Curator: It seems we’ve travelled on our own imaginative flight here together as well; perhaps that’s the charm of it all.