Zigeunerfamilie 1926

Otto Mueller made this drawing of a Roma family with charcoal and gouache on paper. Just imagine him, quickly sketching and shading, trying to capture these figures with a few marks on the paper. The family almost blends into the background of vertical lines. Maybe Mueller wanted to convey their deep connection to the earth. I am drawn to the woman in the red headscarf, there is something so striking about her, and the little child in her lap, seemingly peering out from behind her. The gaze of the figures is knowing and direct; they seem to be both present and somewhere else. Mueller was part of Die Brücke, a group of German expressionist artists, and I see echoes of Kirchner and Heckel here, in the simplified forms and raw emotion. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, riffing off each other, finding inspiration in the past while forging their own path.