Veilinghouder met een naakte vrouw Possibly 1905

This print, *Veilinghouder met een naakte vrouw*, was made by an anonymous artist. Isn’t it funny how a drawing can suggest all this theater? Look at the hatching, the scumbling, the way the artist uses a crayon, or maybe a lithographic pencil, to build form and shadow. I'm trying to imagine the artist working; they're building a world with a few lines, aren't they? It reminds me of Daumier, actually. It has the same kind of bite and dark humor. I think the artist saw something really important about the way we look at each other and how power functions in that gaze. Like, who gets to look, and who has to be looked at? And what does it mean to show, or not show, something? There's a history there, of course, a conversation that artists have been having for centuries. It makes you think about what’s changed, and what hasn’t.