Twee staande figuren 1923

Erich Wichmann made this drawing of two figures in 1923, probably in one of his notebooks, using graphite. The two figures stand side by side, one shaded in, the other more like an outline. I wonder if Wichmann was thinking about what it’s like to be a person with a shadow. The graphite feels light, soft, kind of tentative, like he was thinking through a feeling, maybe of being seen and unseen at the same time. He has inscribed a note at the bottom of the page. The quick, sketchy quality of the drawing makes me think of other artists who use drawing as a way to work through ideas, like Guston, maybe, or Twombly, who also worked a lot on paper. It’s like they are thinking out loud on the page, and we get to listen in. Artists do this, they borrow and exchange ideas over time, inspiring each other, like having a conversation about what it means to be a person, to be alive, and to make art.