Zwei stehende Figuren (Two Standing Figures) [p. 7] 

Curator: This piece, entitled "Zwei stehende Figuren," or "Two Standing Figures," is from a sketchbook by Max Beckmann. It's rendered with pencil and ink, a deceptively simple pairing given the artist’s involvement with Expressionism. Editor: It looks like a conversation overheard but not quite understood, like catching a fragment of a dream in the morning. Quick, fleeting. I feel an immediate empathy for the awkward stance of those two figures, so exposed with just those few strokes! Curator: The beauty of this sketch resides, I think, in the contrast between the immediacy of the artist's hand and the implied labor involved in book-making and Beckmann's practice. We see something raw—thought rendered visible but still held within the formal constraints of the page itself, an almost bureaucratic function. The medium supports the expression. Editor: The clouds or puffs behind their heads feel like thought bubbles escaping—or perhaps muffling any real connection. The bare rendering is a real stylistic choice, almost cruel. Curator: In isolating his subjects like this, Beckmann asks us to confront not only the act of artistic production, but also questions of portraiture itself: Who is the subject, and how do materials contribute to understanding power relationships in this configuration of a portrait? The raw and utilitarian quality of a pen sketch contrasts high-art and a more commonplace form, which speaks, I think, to an almost proletarian concern with accessible representation. Editor: I hadn’t thought about the materials making the whole piece so immediate and communicative. It's really clever when you mention accessibility, somehow the piece invites that too. Maybe the figures have so much in common with the average onlooker, a person observing this person observing that figure... and this could turn into infinity, a loop that everyone will perceive as human and approachable. Curator: It is approachable, yes! That connection is really present when thinking about those humble marks laid onto the canvas, but perhaps that accessibility only serves a capitalist end for a luxury art-product that a specific type of educated consumer engages with to create these effects, you know? Editor: It almost sounds cynical! And yet… I see your point, the world does its bit! This whole reflection opened up the possibilities of the piece! Curator: Indeed, thank you for that new angle on seeing and being seen. Editor: Thanks to you! I will certainly keep these standing figures in my mind.