Vier tanzende Mädchen (Original Title) 1933

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this image, Vier tanzende Mädchen, with drypoint. Imagine Kirchner wielding that needle, scratching directly into the copper plate, each line a commitment, a decision. You can feel the energy of the dance in the scratchy, almost frantic lines. Look at how the bodies overlap and intersect, creating this sense of movement, like a freeze-frame of a wild, ecstatic dance. I wonder what Kirchner was thinking about when he made this? Was he thinking of Matisse, with those dancing figures locked in a circle? You know, Kirchner, like so many artists, was in conversation with his contemporaries, riffing off their ideas. And these vertical lines, do they contain the figures? Or give them a structure to dance to? Artists are always borrowing and stealing from each other, right? It’s a constant exchange of ideas, pushing the boundaries of what painting, and art, can be. We are all in conversation across time, inspiring each other's creativity.