Frau hinter Baum (Woman Behind a Tree) [p. 7] 

Max Beckmann created "Frau hinter Baum" on paper, using pencil. The sketch presents a woman, her form built from looping lines, positioned behind a tree, delineated with similar calligraphic marks. The rough sketchiness gives a sense of immediacy. Beckmann’s drawing uses the intrinsic qualities of line to define form, but also to abstract it. The composition is sparse, yet the energetic, swirling strokes create a dynamic tension between representation and abstraction, challenging conventional modes of depiction. The woman's figure and the tree are almost dissolved into a field of lines, questioning the stability of identity and perception. The page itself, with its horizontal lines, acts as a structural grid grounding the image and offering a contrasting order to the seeming chaos of the sketch. The function of the work lies in this tension between the figure and the ground, order and chaos, representation and abstraction.