At the Hotel (The Dollar) 1923

Max Beckmann made this etching, At The Hotel, most likely in the 1920’s using black ink on paper. It’s a dense composition with a group of figures, some in the foreground, some behind, all pressed into the shallow picture plane. There’s a rawness to the etching which really appeals to me. You can see the marks, the way the needle dug into the metal plate, creating these jagged lines. Look at the foreground figures, they’re delineated with these thick, harsh strokes, particularly the figure to the right. You can see the intensity of the gaze, the suspicion perhaps, etched deep into the paper. The artist leaves areas of the paper untouched, creating a strong contrast between light and dark. This, along with the bold lines, makes the image feel very immediate and direct. Beckmann’s work shares something with artists like Otto Dix and George Grosz, reflecting the anxiety and alienation of the interwar period in Germany. Yet, I think, there’s also a deeply personal and individual vision at work here, the artist grappling with the human condition, one line at a time.