Interieur van een café 1892 - 1928

Johannes Löhr made this etching, Interieur van een café, on paper, sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century. The approach to mark-making here feels like an exploration – loose and immediate, as if Löhr is feeling his way through the scene. You can see the barest hint of figures in this interior, and it becomes all the more real. The texture is created by these dense, rapid lines. Look closely, and you see how the density shifts to suggest shadow and form. It’s like Löhr is physically wrestling with the scene, trying to pin down its essence. Those short, scratchy lines are a great example, they suggest the hurried atmosphere of a busy café. There’s a kind of honesty in the way Löhr embraces the messy, provisional nature of artmaking. It reminds me of some of Daumier's lithographs, where the immediacy of the medium is part of the emotional content. Art isn't about answers; it's about opening up questions and possibilities.