Romantiek 1923

Erich Wichmann made this drawing, Romantiek, in 1923, and it looks like he worked with a soft, smudgy material, maybe charcoal or graphite. The marks blend together, giving the image a hazy, dreamlike quality. For me, that speaks to the process, that artmaking is often about finding form in the blur, teasing something out of nothing. The drawing gives you the sensation of peering through fog, or maybe remembering a face from a dream. The texture is soft and the color is muted, almost monochromatic. Wichmann coaxes a face from the surface, it's hard to tell if it's male or female, young or old. Look at the way the artist renders the eye; a dark smudge that hints at depth. Wichmann reminds me of Odilon Redon, who also explored dreamlike imagery with charcoal. But this piece by Wichmann stands alone in its delicate touch and willingness to embrace ambiguity. It reminds us that art is a conversation, not a lecture.