Vignetten 1907

Edvard Munch made this print called Vignetten, we don't know when, using a black ink on paper. There's something so compelling about Munch's commitment to the process of image-making. It’s like he’s wrestling with each form, trying to pin down something elusive. Looking at the faces, they're all so charged with emotion, rendered with such immediacy that you feel like you're peering into the artist's psyche. Take the circular vignette near the bottom, the one that's densely worked. The ink is almost caked, and it gives the impression of a world in turmoil, a kind of existential angst made visible. It’s gestural and raw, like he's attacking the plate to get the image out, which reminds me of the urgency you find in the work of someone like, oh, I don’t know, maybe Max Beckmann? Ultimately, art's not about answers, is it? It’s about the questions we ask and the spaces we create for others to ask their own.