Männerkopf 1906

Edvard Munch made this etching, "Männerkopf," and it feels like he's wrestling with line itself. It's all scratchy and raw. You can almost feel the metal plate under the ink. Look at the way the lines define the beard – they're not just describing shape, they're creating a dense thicket, a kind of visual noise. Then, the face emerges from this chaos, and it's intense. There’s something almost brutal about the directness of the gaze. This reminds me of later work by someone like Picasso, who was also interested in how mark-making could convey psychological depth. Munch isn't just showing us a man; he’s showing us a state of mind, a way of seeing that's both vulnerable and confrontational. Art doesn't need to be pretty; it needs to be real.