Zwei Weibliche Akte Am Baum 1925

Otto Mueller made "Zwei Weibliche Akte Am Baum" using a muted palette. The whole scene feels like it was conjured up from memory. I can imagine Mueller standing before this paper, charcoal and brush in hand, coaxing these figures into being. See how he uses line to suggest the bodies of the two women. Their form is solid but not too defined and there is a real tenderness in his touch. I wonder if he was thinking of Gauguin. Perhaps of his nudes from Tahiti? The color is also really striking, it's like a memory fading, yet, there is also something so fresh about it, like it was made yesterday. It makes me think about how all artists are having a big conversation across time. Painting is a sort of embodied expression, it embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings, depending on where you’re coming from.