Nude sitting in a chair 1917 - 1936

Zygmunt Waliszewski made this drawing of a nude sitting in a chair using pencil and pastel. It’s not about making a perfect picture, but feeling the movement as the marks drag along the paper. There's a real vulnerability in the way the artist allows the materials to behave. The smudged lines and the visible strokes invite us to witness the evolution of the image, as if we're right there in the studio with the artist. Notice that strange green patch on the leg. It doesn’t quite make sense, and yet its presence is so evocative. The image becomes more about the process of looking and feeling than about any literal representation. Waliszewski reminds me of Soutine, who also had that same kind of urgency and directness. They both show us that art is a conversation, a back-and-forth between the artist and the materials, with room for doubt and change and endless re-seeing.