Zwei Mädchen Im Wald 1919

Otto Mueller made this print, Zwei Mädchen Im Wald, with lithography. You can tell the artist's hand has moved between observation and abstraction, trying to figure out the exact balance between tonal form and gestural expression. I imagine Otto standing at the lithography stone, grinding the surface, drawing with greasy crayons, thinking about everything from the temperature to the humidity in the room! The marks are dark and full of nervous energy. They make me wonder about the kind of freedom that comes from being in nature, away from civilization, like in a painting by Gauguin or Heckel. The girls are immersed in the water, their yellow skin contrasting with the dense, scratchy forest and dark water around them. Just look at those lines! The trees are rendered with such expressive strokes; each one feels like a breath. I can imagine Otto wanting to convey all the complexity and mystery of the natural world, trying to capture the essence of the forest in a single image. It’s like he's saying: come into the forest, come into the water!