Kopf Frau Louise Bauer I 1927

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this print, Kopf Frau Louise Bauer I, and well, I can only imagine what it might have been like to be Kirchner, grappling with the essence of a person, Louise Bauer, through the unforgiving medium of etching. There’s a real tension here in the etched lines, a kind of frenetic energy. See how they build up this face, almost like a topographical map of emotion? Kirchner is known for his involvement with the German Expressionist group Die Brücke, so I wonder if this work shares a similar spirit of raw emotional honesty. You know, it reminds me of some of the portraits by Beckmann, where the subjects seem to be peering out from behind a mask of anxiety. Maybe these artists are kindred spirits, wrestling with similar demons. Anyway, it’s this very ambiguity, this sense of unease, that keeps me coming back to this piece. There are endless stories buried in those lines.