Untitled 1919

Paul Kleinschmidt made this untitled print with etching on paper. Look closely at the lines. They’re so urgent, so scratchy, like the artist was chasing after something just out of reach. I can imagine Kleinschmidt hunched over the plate, needling in the darks, building up a world in nervous strokes. He must have been thinking about movement and chaos, the way bodies strain against each other. Look at the rearing horse, the rider barely holding on – what a way to depict the push and pull of life! There’s a raw energy here that reminds me of Soutine, that same willingness to let the image teeter on the edge of collapse. It makes me wonder, what were the conversations between artists at this time? How did one person’s struggle inform another’s vision? Painting and printmaking is about embracing the unresolved, isn’t it? It invites us to keep looking, keep questioning, because there’s no single answer, just a constant unfolding.