Zwei Frauen (Two Women) [p. 5] 1927

Max Beckmann made this drawing, Zwei Frauen, with graphite on paper. It’s almost like he’s feeling his way around the figures, one line at a time. Look at the woman on the left – her profile is so sharp, but then her eyes are soft, almost too big. And the way she’s holding her hand to her mouth. Is she thinking? Hiding a smile? There’s a scratchiness to the graphite, a realness to the surface of the paper, that makes it feel immediate, like a snapshot. Like he was trying to catch something fleeting, something true. It reminds me a little of Picasso’s drawings, that same sense of searching, of not quite settling on one way to see a face. It’s like he’s saying, “Here’s what I saw, but it could be so many other things too.” And that’s what keeps me looking.