Mehrfigurige Kompositionsskizze (Figural Composition) [p. 68] 1918 - 1919

This sketch by Max Beckmann is from a notebook, so it's a very immediate, intimate thing. It's all about the movement of the hand, searching and finding the forms. You can see how the pencil lines create a kind of energetic web, and the figures emerge from this chaotic, scribbled space. I love the physicality of the graphite on paper. Look closely, and you can almost feel the pressure Beckmann applied with his hand. Some lines are light and tentative, while others are dark and assertive, really carving out the shapes. In the lower part of the drawing, there’s this cluster of faces, kind of crammed together, and the lines get really dense there. It’s like he was working through something, trying to get a handle on the composition. Beckmann reminds me a little of Ensor. Both of them embrace this kind of messy, unresolved quality, which allows for multiple readings. It's never really pinned down, never totally resolved, and that’s what keeps it alive.