Irene Altman 1921 - 1922

Otto Mueller made this drawing of Irene Altman with what looks like charcoal or maybe lithographic crayon, and look how he uses these marks to conjure her face into being! You can see him thinking about where light falls and how the planes of her face change direction; that kind of looking is so physical, so embodied, like dancing with your eyes. I imagine Mueller, squinting at his model, feeling the weight of the charcoal in his hand. The way he's rendered her eye is amazing, just a few quick strokes and suddenly there's a sense of alertness. The texture of the paper grabs the charcoal, each line having its own little life. You can see this drawing as part of a lineage that stretches back to German Expressionism, where artists were trying to capture raw emotion and psychological states. It reminds me of some of Paula Modersohn-Becker’s portraits, in its directness and simplicity. Ultimately, it's all about this exchange, this conversation, across time.