Woman and Child by Liebrinski

Woman and Child 1948

0:00
0:00

Dimensions: overall: 51.3 x 41.2 cm (20 3/16 x 16 1/4 in.)

Copyright: National Gallery of Art: CC0 1.0

Liebrinski made this 'Woman and Child' using charcoal, or maybe chalk, it's hard to tell, but it looks like it was a very physical, smudgy kind of process. Look at the way the lines build up, a bit frantic, a bit like trying to capture a feeling that's hard to pin down. There's a real tenderness in the way the figures are drawn, but it’s also quite raw and immediate. The marks feel intuitive, like the artist was working fast, trying to catch a fleeting moment. The softness of the charcoal gives the figures a blurry, dreamlike quality. See the way the light catches the curve of the child's cheek, or the way the mother's arm wraps around the child? These details are rendered with a kind of hesitant confidence, like the artist is feeling their way through the image. It reminds me a little of Paula Modersohn-Becker's early expressionist paintings, where the figures are solid but also full of feeling. In art there are no answers, only new ways of seeing, new ways of feeling.

Show more

Comments

No comments

Be the first to comment and join the conversation on the ultimate creative platform.