Young Girl Drawing 1906

Here's a glimpse into Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's world, etched with drypoint, showing a young girl drawing. Just imagine Kirchner coaxing these lines from the plate, guided by some inner necessity, each stroke a little risk, a little revelation. There's such tenderness in the way he captures her focus, head bent, hands absorbed in the act of creation. I can almost feel the scratch of the needle on the copper, the resistance, the give. There's an immediacy here; Kirchner's known for the raw intensity of his work, those jagged lines and dissonant colours. Thinking about what Kirchner's up to here – it strikes me that artists are all, in a way, drawing each other, responding, reacting, pushing back. Each mark we make is a conversation with the past, a gesture toward the future. And when we look at a work like this, we're joining that conversation, adding our own voice to the chorus.