Linker Ärmel mit Andeutung der Schulter 

Curator: This drawing is entitled "Linker Ärmel mit Andeutung der Schulter," or "Left Sleeve with Indication of the Shoulder," and it is currently held here at the Städel Museum. Editor: It's elegant. Such simple tools—paper, charcoal—conjure something ethereal, almost dreamlike, suspended in grey. There's a tangible sadness in it, like a relic. Curator: Well, yes! Precisely. The rendering, the very medium itself, charcoal, has that past-ness. Editor: There’s an element of labor here too, of course. Each line is intentional, revealing the artist’s hand and process so clearly. You can almost feel the texture of the paper, the pressure of the charcoal as it builds up the form. I think that kind of intimate access really democratizes artmaking. Curator: Don't you think the implied, spectral figure elevates it, though? The absent body lends a touch of haunting mystery, encouraging contemplation. It is an ode to absent bodies! Editor: Perhaps. But even then, it prompts questions about whose labor makes such artistic pursuits possible? Whose sleeves are represented, and what stories are not being told? The value is derived from both its beauty and its historical placement within complex systems of production. Curator: Oh, it feels simpler than that, somehow, not burdened. Just… poignant. You look at that sleeve, slightly askew, and imagine a whole world of touch and memory, all resting there, briefly sketched, gone the next. It feels so incredibly vulnerable! Editor: True, but even vulnerability exists within power structures. Acknowledging that enhances, rather than detracts, from its resonance, making the sleeve an even richer object of reflection. It also asks: whose arm is deemed worthy of documentation? Whose lives are validated through art? Curator: I see that—thank you for shifting my own focus! Still, even now, looking at this spare, perfect little fragment, my first feeling remains: what could have been, and now will never be. Editor: And with that feeling in mind, perhaps we can find motivation for ensuring all possibilities are realized and acknowledged in our world of art and labor.