Liegender Akt nach rechts, auf die Unterarme gestützt, den Kopf nach vorne gesenkt 1932

This drawing was made by Georg Kolbe using charcoal on paper, sometime in the early twentieth century. I'm thinking about Kolbe, charcoal in hand, circling and returning, smudging and building up. It's all here, an evolving form, shifting from dark to light. You can see the artist searching, finding, losing, and re-finding. I imagine him stepping back to look at his work, and then stepping in again, drawing. The charcoal marks become shadows and mass, defining the figure of a woman, her head hung low. The pose feels heavy, inward. I feel a strange tenderness in the way that her body is drawn with such a loose hand. The artist lets the charcoal do its thing – capturing the light and shadow. It’s really beautiful. Kolbe did not work in isolation. Artists are always in conversation, responding to what came before, and this piece inspires me to think of the endless possibilities of mark-making.