Portrait of Wolfgang Frommel [p. 17] 1944 - 1949

This is a pencil portrait of Wolfgang Frommel by Max Beckmann, probably from one of Beckmann's sketchbooks. Look at how Beckmann builds up the face with so many lines, all these little scribbles—it's like he's mapping the terrain of a face. The cross-hatching gives Frommel depth, and also, this real sense of movement, like the guy won’t sit still. I love the way Beckmann doesn’t try to hide the process. You can see every stroke, every decision he made and then changed his mind about. Check out the area around the mouth; the lines are so tight and concentrated there, giving it this tense, almost grim quality. Then, down at the bottom, he seems to relax a little, scrawling some loose lines that could be a signature or just a doodle. Beckmann reminds me of someone like Picasso, always pushing the boundaries of representation, not afraid to be a bit messy, a bit raw. It’s in that roughness, that ambiguity, that the real juice is.