Two Women on a Sofa 1909

Max Pechstein made this drawing of Two Women on a Sofa with ink on paper. It’s all about these dark lines snaking around on the paper, right? You can imagine him quickly capturing the scene in front of him. I wonder what was going through Pechstein’s head as he was making it? Was he trying to capture a specific likeness, or just the general vibe of these two women chilling on a couch? Did he know them? Is the spiky woman angry or just impatient? I feel like he’s really trying to pin something down about modern life, about how we all sit around together, but maybe don’t really connect. There’s this tension between the quick, almost careless strokes, and this deeper, more thoughtful quality. I am reminded a bit of Kirchner's street scenes, but Pechstein is doing his own thing in his own way, grabbing a bit of the world and making it his own. Artists are always in dialogue with each other across time. They build on each other's ideas, challenge each other, and keep the conversation going.