Beckmann Sketchbook 21 1918 - 1922

This little book, Beckmann Sketchbook 21, is all surface, black and stained with a kind of history. I wonder what it felt like in Beckmann's hands? You know, when I see a sketchbook like this, I can't help but imagine the artist, maybe wrestling with ideas, quickly capturing fleeting thoughts. There's something intimate about sketchbooks. I wonder what kind of pressure he put on the pencil to create a certain mood or effect. Was he thinking about mortality, the weight of the world? Maybe this was his way of grappling with the darkness, one page at a time. The black cover reminds me of the covers of old jazz records. As painters, we are all in conversation, a chorus of voices across time. Each of us responding to what came before, wrestling with the same questions, searching for new ways to express the unsayable. It's a beautiful mess, isn't it?