Personage 1949

Editor: Right in front of us, we have Germaine Richier's "Personage" from 1949, rendered in pencil and ink. It strikes me as incredibly raw and almost frantic, as if capturing a fleeting moment. The figure feels trapped by those bold lines… What do you make of it? Curator: Trapped, yes, or perhaps embraced. It’s like looking at a soul navigating its own architectural blueprint. Richier often played with this tension between form and freedom. It’s post-war, you know? So, there’s that rawness, a visual echo of fractured certainties. The way she leaves the lines unfinished, the sketch-like quality – it all points to something emerging, still in process, like the world itself at the time. Do you see the echoes of costume within the etching? Editor: I do. Almost like a costume swallowing the figure entirely. Given that she also worked in sculpture, does this sketch relate to her three-dimensional work? Curator: Absolutely! For Richier, drawing was an extension of her sculpting practice—a way to think through volume, space, and the textures she later manifested in bronze. Her sculptures, similar to the mood in this picture, share a sense of precarious humanity, where the forms feel simultaneously powerful and fragile. Editor: It's interesting how the sketch seems like a building plan, then. A fragile blueprint, a future not yet determined. Curator: Precisely. This is what makes Richier’s work so timeless. Each line asks a question rather than provides an answer. I like how you describe it. Editor: That gives me a new perspective of this art, and to think about art more widely!