Tea Dance (Tanz Kaffee) c. 1925

This drawing, "Tea Dance," by George Grosz, looks like it was made with a steady hand and a wicked eye. I can almost feel Grosz's hand moving across the page, quickly, decisively, capturing a scene with just a few lines. The figures emerge from a tangle of marks, all sharp angles and cynical curves. You can feel the pressure of his pencil, scratching out the details of a decadent, decaying society. What was he thinking as he drew these people? Did he feel pity, disgust, or a strange mix of both? You can see echoes of other satirical artists here like Hogarth, Daumier, but Grosz has his own particular brand of vitriol. He’s almost like a reporter, capturing the mood of a time, a place, a class. But it’s also something more personal, a way of working through his own feelings about the world. Artists are always in conversation, borrowing and riffing off each other, trying to make sense of things through the act of making.