Dancing couples 1921

Max Beckmann made this drawing of dancing couples with pencil. You know, sometimes a drawing is just the start of something, but here, the sketchiness feels like the whole point, right? The marks are tentative, searching, like he’s trying to catch a feeling more than a likeness. Look how the lines kind of vibrate around the forms, never quite settling. It’s like the dance itself, a blur of movement and energy, captured in these quick, scribbled lines. There’s a real freedom in that. And check out the way he suggests faces with just a few strokes – a curve for a cheek, a dot for an eye. It’s minimal, but it’s enough. It reminds me of Picasso’s drawings, where he could convey so much with so little. Both artists were masters of distilling form down to its essence, and of letting the process show. It's the art of suggestion.