Spreewälderin c. 1928 - 1930

Otto Verhagen made this drawing, Spreewälderin, with pencil and crayon. Look at how the quick, confident lines define the woman’s figure. It’s like Verhagen is thinking through the act of drawing itself. The green crayon brings such an unexpected jolt of colour against all the grey pencil work. It pools in the folds of her skirt, with these decisive stripes near the bottom of the hem. See how the crayon is layered on, giving it a waxy depth that you don’t get from the flatter areas. It makes you want to reach out and touch it, feel that build up of material. And then there are those darker marks near the head, they are intriguing, a flourish that echoes the ones at the bottom of the skirt, but the meaning is more obscured. There’s a quality to Verhagen's mark-making that reminds me of late Guston, who also uses line in a very active way, pushing it to the forefront. Art isn't about answers, it's about that conversation, across time.