Elefantenkopf (Elephant Head) [p. 33] 

Editor: This is Max Beckmann’s pencil drawing, *Elefantenkopf*, or *Elephant Head*. The date’s unknown, but just looking at this simple line drawing, I feel a sense of melancholy. What do you make of this humble portrait, with its lonely outline? Curator: Melancholy is a great word for it. It reminds me of when I tried to draw my cat as a child—that feeling of grappling with a huge subject, only to end up with something...less grand. I think it reveals the elephant, but it also reveals Beckmann grappling with how to contain this huge, powerful being within the lines of his pencil. Doesn’t it make you wonder what other artistic giants have struggled with the same thing? The audacity of the artist to even try! Do you think Beckmann captured the essence of 'elephant-ness', or something else entirely? Editor: I’m not sure about essence… But there’s something vulnerable about its simplicity, something lost in translation perhaps? Was Beckmann trying to capture reality, or something more internal? Curator: Exactly! And it's very 'German Expressionist', this quest for something internal. I find myself pondering what this image says about Beckmann himself. Was he drawn to the elephant's otherness? His own? Maybe artmaking, at its core, is simply an existential reflection via these sketches. Each mark both there and absent; presence and vacancy... Like whispers in an empty zoo enclosure. Editor: It’s like he's drawn an idea rather than an animal. I really didn’t expect to feel so moved by an elephant drawing today. Thanks for this… it gave me a new perspective! Curator: Likewise. It's incredible how a simple line drawing can provoke so much thought. That, I think, is the magic of art.