A Woman’s Reflection In A Row of Houses 1946

Ernst Fuchs made this drawing, of what looks like a woman reflected in buildings, with what appears to be pencil and ink. The artist's hand moved in tiny, intense scratches, building up the form. Look at the stippling – those concentrated clusters of tiny dots – and how they give a sense of volume, of almost gothic horror. I can almost see Fuchs now, hunched over the paper, totally engrossed, maybe in Vienna, channeling everything he’s got. This is some heavy surrealism, full of bodies and buildings. It reminds me of the darker visions of painters like Kubin, the bodies looking as if they are being torn open, revealing what lies within. It is a dark conversation with previous generations of surrealists. But that is what art is, right? A kind of mediumistic collaboration across time. We channel those who came before us, wrestling with our own ideas.