Tavern (Kneipe) 1911

Max Beckmann made this drawing, Tavern, sometime during his career, and it’s like a visual diary entry of a crowded bar scene, all sketched out with raw energy. The marks are urgent, a flurry of lines that build up to suggest forms rather than define them, like a jazz solo, where the notes are suggestive. Looking closely, you can see how the texture of the paper peeks through the sparse application of the ink, creating a kind of gritty atmosphere. There’s a real sense of immediacy, as if Beckmann was right there, capturing the scene as it unfolded. I keep finding myself drawn to the two children at the margin of the drawing, it reminds me a bit of Kathe Kollwitz, the way Beckmann uses a dense cross hatching here to create a sense of weight and melancholy. Both artists feel like they are part of this continuing tradition of using expressive mark-making to convey the human condition, it's like a conversation that stretches across time and space, it doesn't always need to be resolved, it's more interesting to let things be unresolved.