Restaurant c. 1925

George Grosz made this drawing, Restaurant, with pen and ink. It's all about the line, right? Like a wild dance, the ink teeters between control and chaos. Grosz's lines, they’re so alive, so raw! Look at the way he scratches around the figures, building up these grotesque characters. The heavy-set man in the foreground is fascinating, his puffy face and disproportionate size are captured with a few deft strokes, he's almost exploding out of the frame. You can see the artist wrestling with the medium, pushing it to its limits. It’s not just observation; it's an experience of the artist’s hand. Grosz reminds me a little of Philip Guston, both artists are masters of this kind of spiky, satirical commentary. The beauty of art is that it doesn't give you all the answers, it invites you to keep looking, keep questioning.