Melancholie I c. 1933

Karl Wiener made this drawing, Melancholie I, sometime before 1949 with ink on paper. It's all about the process of looking, isn't it? The lines are so direct, so economical. Each one feels essential, like a breath held and released. There's a real tension between the abstraction of the face and the emotional weight of that downturned gaze. Look at the forehead, how it's built from these intersecting lines, almost architectural in their precision, yet they fail to completely resolve into a readable form, dissolving instead into the surrounding space. The feeling here reminds me a little bit of Picasso's blue period drawings, a similar sense of sadness and introspection, but Wiener's mark-making feels more raw, more urgent. It's like he's trying to capture a fleeting emotion before it disappears altogether. Ultimately, this drawing is a reminder that art isn't about answers, but about asking the right questions, and maybe finding a little bit of beauty in the process.