Cart Horses 1909

Max Pechstein created "Cart Horses" with printmaking ink on paper. It’s all about the line here, isn't it? Look at the economy of means. I mean, these graphic marks give us everything – the weight of the horses, the pull of the cart, the figure of the driver, the landscape. It's so direct. You can feel Pechstein's hand moving across the plate, deciding what to keep, what to cut away. It's as if he's saying, "Here's the essence, the bare minimum to convey this scene." I wonder what he was thinking as he etched those lines? Was he aiming for realism or something more expressive? Maybe he was thinking about the German Expressionists and their raw, emotional intensity. It's like he’s in conversation with them, responding to their work and adding his own voice to the mix. That's the beauty of painting and printmaking, right? It's an ongoing dialogue across time and place, artists speaking to each other through their work, inspiring each other to see and feel the world in new ways.