Am Ufer Sitzendes Mädchen 1926

Otto Mueller made this painting of a girl sitting by a river, with paint and maybe charcoal, who knows. The way the marks are laid down so simply, so directly, makes you feel like you could just reach out and make one yourself, which is always something I look for in a painting. The textures here, from the scratchy lines of the reeds to the smooth planes of her body, are what makes the picture sing. Look at the way the black line is used, outlining everything, yet also filling in the details. It’s so confident, so sure of itself. My eye keeps going back to that little patch of blue under her leg; it’s like a tiny window into another world. There’s a simplicity here that reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker, another German artist who was trying to capture something essential about the human figure. I think of art as a conversation, so it’s always fun to see how artists build on each other's ideas.