Café 1912

Editor: So, this is "Café," a 1912 ink drawing by Max Beckmann. The scratchy, almost frantic lines give it a really anxious, crowded feel, don't you think? What jumps out at you when you look at it? Curator: Anxious, yes, and crowded! It feels like being in a room where everyone is talking but nobody's listening, doesn't it? This was Beckmann's pre-war period and there's a tension here. Have you ever noticed how he uses light and shadow? It's almost theatrical, casting some figures in a harsh light while others recede into darkness, as though masking away from society. Editor: The stark contrast definitely adds to the mood. So, the dark shading represents isolation and fear? Curator: Not necessarily fear, but definitely alienation. Remember, this is German Expressionism; artists were interested in capturing the inner emotional landscape, and, here, perhaps, a shared social unrest, and what's more is that each figures stands alone, trapped within this moment, each expressing what would become commonplace by 1914. What do you make of the positioning of the figures? The faces in profile? The figure slumped low beneath the cafe table in the bottom left corner? Editor: It's interesting that most of the faces are averted. It makes the viewer feel like an outsider looking in – or perhaps like everyone *inside* is an outsider, disconnected. Like it's an idea that perhaps the war broke individuals, perhaps before its coming. The huddled person definitely supports that idea, like social trauma put onto paper. Curator: Precisely! There is a feeling of disharmony in public gathering - or possibly a prescience. Beckmann wasn't just showing us a café; he was showing us a feeling. So much can be hidden in a simple, intimate study of a place... it makes you wonder, what would one small café or corner shop drawing mean to another viewer a hundred years into the future? It's like capturing emotion. Editor: That's so true. I'll never look at a simple sketch the same way again! I was looking at lines but there is this entire world of interpretation.