Man in a Room, Self-portrait 1923

Walter Gramatté made this self-portrait, "Man in a Room," using etching, a process of scratching into a metal plate, creating a space with the freedom to make and remake marks, to start again. The image is a collection of lines, like a map of the artist’s inner world. The scratching feels urgent, like he’s trying to capture something fleeting, a feeling maybe. Look at the area around the eyes, where the lines are so dense they create shadows. There's a rawness and honesty, it’s as if Gramatté is stripping away the surface to reveal something deeper. The way Gramatté uses line to create both form and atmosphere reminds me of artists like Käthe Kollwitz, who also used printmaking to explore themes of human suffering and resilience. This self-portrait doesn't give us any easy answers, but asks us to sit with its ambiguity and find our own meaning in its depths.