Entertainment 1930

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this drawing "Entertainment" with graphite and coloured pencil. The way he's built up those lines, it’s all about the process of finding the image, adjusting the image. It's like he's thinking out loud. The colours feel like a mood, rather than trying to describe something real. Look at the mark-making around the figure's arm. It’s like he wants you to see the gesture, the energy of the arm, not just the arm itself. It’s not about perfectly capturing a body but about capturing a feeling, a mood. You get the feeling that he is not necessarily trying to show you a real scene, but trying to show you a feeling. Kirchner’s contemporary Max Beckman shared a similar expressionist approach. Both artists are interested in representing the world not as it is, but as it feels. And, like all art, this piece invites us to see the world in new and unexpected ways.