Twee vrouwen ontvoeren een man 1871 - 1945

This etching, by Ludwig von Hofmann, features soft, blurry figures made up of subtle light grey lines. I can almost imagine him carefully maneuvering the etching needle across the plate. A trio of figures seem to glide across the paper. Von Hofmann, like me, was trying to work out how to express a feeling of movement and weight through art. I wonder what he was thinking as he drew that figure at the front, so intent with their arms outstretched as if to pull the others forward. Maybe he’d been looking at classical sculpture and wanted to inject some of that energy into his own work. Making art is such a conversation across time. We see what others have done before, and we try to take it somewhere new. For me, the most exciting art embraces not knowing, that’s how new possibilities emerge.