Street in Warsaw Possibly 1915

Ernst Barlach made this drawing, Street in Warsaw, with graphite on paper. Look at the energy in those lines, the weight of the forms, the angles, the way the whole thing is built up with layers of hatching. I can almost feel Barlach bearing down, pressing hard, then easing off to let the light in. He’s really working that graphite, grinding it into the page. I bet his hand was aching after this one. It makes me think about Käthe Kollwitz, another German artist who worked with such starkness and empathy. There’s this shared sense of human struggle, a kind of raw honesty that cuts through the surface. That pointing finger, it’s so accusatory, so full of sorrow. What is she pointing at? I’m thinking about the conversations artists have across time, and how each mark, each choice, builds on what came before and opens up possibilities for what will come next.