Junge Frau im Lehnstuhl, mit übergeschlagenen Beinen 

Curator: I see a kind of dreamy elegance, almost like a whispered secret sketched on paper. It’s Victor Müller's “Junge Frau im Lehnstuhl, mit übergeschlagenen Beinen"—a young woman in an armchair with crossed legs. Editor: My initial reaction is to the almost unsettling bareness of the materials. The pencil strokes seem incredibly economical, just enough to barely contain the figure and set the scene. It's stark, almost as though she's waiting. Curator: Yes, that sparsity is potent, isn't it? It gives the feeling that she is caught in a thought—or in between thoughts—suspended in her private world, in her very plush chair, of course. Makes you wonder what she is imagining. The medium here –pencil on paper--speaks to something very intimate and immediate, right? Editor: Exactly, a stark contrast between the labor and cost it must have required to produce this sort of paper versus the loose quality of the work. What type of woman had the privilege to spend her time captured so intimately in her chair? What would have been Müller’s role in producing that privilege and what conditions made it possible for him to depict that life so spontaneously with his tools of drawing and paper? Curator: Such a lovely point! Müller must have felt captivated enough by this young woman to create her a space in art. This really becomes something incredibly emotional that material reality simply can’t account for. Editor: While I appreciate your sentiment, it’s the material conditions that provide us with a fuller picture! Consider this pencil— where did the graphite come from? Who processed it? How does that speak to labor? A ‘drawing’ can be deceiving in its apparent simplicity but each choice implies an intricate web of creation. The shadow’s angled lines give an additional depth but, at the same time, seem economical with the use of strokes, which, combined, do allow for this more ephemeral emotion. Curator: It really allows you to reflect, right? Editor: Most definitely. It speaks about how the value of any creative act needs a close analysis from every point of view, from materials, making to privilege.