Kopf mit Hut, Gesicht verworfen (Head with a Hat) [p. 37] 

Editor: This is a sketch, titled "Head with a Hat" by Max Beckmann. It looks like it's done in pencil. It feels very… tentative, almost unfinished, with those scribbled lines suggesting the face. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The roughness is precisely what grips me. The visible hatching, those broken lines—they speak of something repressed, don’t they? Consider the hat, a symbol of societal roles, perched precariously atop a face rendered almost abstract by shadow. The obscuring darkness transforms it into something primordial. It hides meaning while simultaneously demanding we look deeper. Editor: So, the hat is less about fashion and more about… concealment? Curator: Precisely. Think of hats in history—status symbols, markers of identity, shields against the world. Beckmann distorts this, hinting at the anxieties simmering beneath a polished surface. Do you see the almost violent application of pencil to describe the facial features? Editor: Now that you mention it, there's a sense of anxiety in how aggressively the features are drawn. I hadn't quite picked up on that. Curator: The work reminds us that appearances are not just about vanity, they are defense mechanisms. Editor: This has completely changed my interpretation of this sketch. It is much more intense than I initially gave it credit for! Curator: Exactly! It is a visual metaphor for how we conceal and protect ourselves. Hopefully others see and feel that too.