Geabstraheerd gezicht met getuite lippen 1923

Erich Wichmann made this abstracted face with pursed lips in 1923 using what looks like charcoal or pencil on paper. Imagine him hunched over a table, perhaps in a cafe, sketching furiously. It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking, but I get a sense of him experimenting, pushing the boundaries of representation. Look at the way the face is elongated, almost like a teardrop, with those downturned eyes giving a melancholy air. It's a face but it is also a sign or symbol. The hatching marks and the smudged areas give it a raw, immediate feel, as if he was trying to capture a fleeting emotion or a half-formed thought. I love how Wichmann doesn’t smooth things over but leaves in the traces of his process. This little drawing feels like it's part of a larger conversation about what a portrait can be, echoing folks like Picasso or maybe even some of the German Expressionists. It reminds us that art is always building on what came before, and that every artist is just trying to figure things out, one mark at a time.