Self-Portrait in Bowler Hat 1921

Here we have an etched self-portrait of Max Beckmann, a man in a bowler hat, made with ink on paper. It's a tight close-up, like he's right there with you. I imagine Beckmann hunched over the plate, scratching away with his needle, lost in thought. There's something kind of claustrophobic about those lines, so close together, creating this contained space around his face. It's like he's trapped in his own head. The materiality is all there—the scratchy, nervous energy of the etched lines, the way the ink bites into the paper, each mark a decision, a hesitation. His stare is intense, but there is also vulnerability. What was he thinking? It reminds me a little of other self-portraits by artists like Rembrandt, who also used the medium of etching to reveal his own humanity. We keep looking at each other across time and space. We continue the conversation, the dialogue, the investigation.