Entwurf zu "Vogelspiel" (Sketch for "Birdplay") [p. 31] 1944 - 1949

Here is a quick sketch in blue ink for Max Beckmann’s later painting “Birdplay”. I love seeing these raw, immediate ideas! It’s like catching the artist in the act of thinking. Look at those quick, looping lines – pure energy! You can almost feel Beckmann’s hand zipping across the page, trying to capture some fleeting image in his mind. I wonder what he was thinking about when he made this? These spidery figures almost look like they’re dancing, or maybe they’re falling. I can imagine the image shifting and changing as he drew, figures emerging from the chaos of the lines. There are elements of cubism and surrealism coming through, like a half-remembered dream, the kind you try to sketch out before it fades away completely. It's like he is talking to Picasso and Ernst at the same time, a real conversation of lines. And that’s what art is all about, isn’t it? A constant dialogue across time and space.