States of Mind: The Farewells (recto); Study for Female Figure (Ines) (verso) 1911

This drawing, "States of Mind: The Farewells (recto); Study for Female Figure (Ines) (verso)" is by Umberto Boccioni and it’s a graphite on paper. I can imagine Boccioni building this drawing up, line by line, searching for a way to express something ineffable. There's a softness to the graphite, but the lines have an energy that really moves. I’m wondering if he was thinking about how to represent a goodbye, that moment of departure, and all the tangled emotions that come with it. The repeated swirling lines convey a sense of movement and the dizzying feelings, the sense of bodies in space, maybe even the echo of voices fading away. I think about Rodin and the way he captured bodies, too. These artists are all dealing with a kind of representation, that's more about feeling than accuracy, like a visual poem. It makes you wonder, what are we really seeing when we look at each other? What do we feel? And how can that be translated?