Boote mit Menschen (Boats and Figures) [p. 59] 

Max Beckmann made this small sketch, "Boats and Figures," using graphite on paper. It's just lines on a page, really, but it shows the artist's process, his way of thinking through form and space. Beckmann was part of the New Objectivity movement, a style that emerged in Germany in the 1920s, after World War I. These artists wanted to show the world as it was, without romanticizing it. And you can see that here in the stark, angular lines. There is no sense of beauty in the traditional sense. The roughness of the sketch gives the work a directness, an honesty. It's a rejection of the polished, finished art that had been popular before the war. The lack of detail also speaks to the difficulty of representing the world after such a traumatic event. This was a world of hard labor, of industry and alienation, where people felt lost and disconnected. Ultimately, this little sketch is about the act of making, of trying to find meaning in a world that seemed to have lost it.