Dreaming Girl 1906

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner created this etching, Dreaming Girl, using a subtractive process to make an image of addition and sensuality. The marks are so immediate, like the artist was just letting his hand go for a walk on the plate. Look how the etched lines describing the figure’s body are so scratchy and raw, giving this dreamy pose an almost anxious quality. It’s as if the girl’s repose is a kind of performance, a way of holding herself together in the face of something else going on within. Kirchner’s cross hatching and furious mark making gives the work a tangible sense of weight, but also lightness. There’s a real tension here, a sense of trying to catch something fleeting and ephemeral. Artists like Max Beckmann also evoke a similar sense of the figure in flux, an unwillingness to settle on one idea or form. In this way, Kirchner shows us that art is an ongoing conversation, a perpetual re-evaluation.