Olympia 1924

Otto Mueller made this lithograph ‘Olympia’ with crayons, which is a really great way to get the body down, because the medium sort of forces a drawing-like approach. I imagine him drawing and redrawing the figure, wiping away marks, and building up layers of color until he gets the form just right, you know? It’s like the figure emerges from a cloud of possibilities. I'm kind of thinking, what’s going on with the landscape? It’s almost like the body is part of it – the same greens and blues run through the figure and the background, blending the body into nature. There's a kind of flatness, like in Matisse or the German Expressionists, but the litho crayon gives a softness. I just think about all of those painters making something of themselves, in painting. It’s inspiring. We’re all in conversation, after all.