Rückenakt mit buntem Tuch 1911

Egon Schiele made this watercolor and pencil work, "Rückenakt mit buntem Tuch", and it’s all about embracing process. You see how the watercolor bleeds and pools, and the pencil lines aren't trying to be perfect? It feels like Schiele was more interested in the act of looking and recording, than in creating a polished product. The colors are muted except for that vibrant, almost aggressively colorful cloth obscuring the figure's face, which is a focal point. The texture of the paper peeks through the thin washes of color, and the raw, unblended quality of the pigment gives it a very immediate feel. Look at the spine, how it's punctuated by these small, almost painful dabs of red, it runs like a kind of emotional fault line, connecting the head and the base of the spine. Schiele reminds me of Alice Neel, in the sense of this really raw, unfiltered emotionality. Art isn't about answers, it's about the questions we ask and the conversations we start.