Sitzender weiblicher Torso 1918

Egon Schiele made this drawing, Sitzender weiblicher Torso, with black ink on paper. Just look at the simplicity of the marks, the open-ness of the lines, they suggest that artmaking is an act of finding rather than making. I love the way the color of the paper serves as the skin tone for this figure, it's like the skin itself is the foundation, and the ink lines act like the bones of this woman. See how the hand obscures the face? It's a beautiful gesture, full of emotion, vulnerability, maybe even shame. The physicality of the medium, the starkness of the lines against the pale surface, lends itself to the conceptual resonances of raw emotion. The drawing reminds me of some of Matisse's line drawings, where the essential form is captured with just a few strokes. Art is an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time. There's a beautiful ambiguity to this piece, a space for multiple interpretations, for feeling more than knowing.