Acrobat on a Horse 1913

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this etching called 'Acrobat on a Horse', and look at all those scratchy lines! He's not trying to hide the process here, you can almost feel the energy of his hand moving across the plate. It's all about the doing, the physical act of making marks. I love how the lines create a sense of movement, like the acrobat is really in motion, struggling to keep her balance. The texture is amazing, isn't it? The way the ink catches in the grooves creates this gritty, almost chaotic surface. It's not a smooth, polished image, it's raw and immediate. See that cluster of dark lines around the horse's legs? They create this sense of depth and shadow, but also a kind of nervous energy. It reminds me a little of Picasso, how he was always pushing and pulling at the boundaries of representation. With this one, Kirchner isn't trying to give us a perfect picture, he's giving us a feeling.