Kauernde 1914

Egon Schiele made this line drawing of a crouching figure, called 'Kauernde', with ink on paper. What strikes me is the process, you can feel the artist responding to each line he’s making. The texture of the paper really comes through, which gives the drawing a certain warmth. The marks are wiry, scratchy, and a bit frantic, but also somehow very tender. It's like he’s trying to capture not just the figure, but the feeling of being alive, of being in a body. Look at the lines around the figure, a halo of energy expressing the tension and the vulnerability of the pose. Schiele reminds me of Marlene Dumas, who also uses simple means to create emotionally charged portraits. Both artists seem to embrace the imperfections and ambiguities of artmaking.