Lovis Corinth in the Berlin Atelier 1904

Aura Hertwig made this photograph titled "Lovis Corinth in the Berlin Atelier" around 1904, and it's like a peek into a painter's world, all in monochrome. Hertwig has captured Corinth with his tools of the trade: brushes held in one hand, and a palette in the other. The palette itself is a little universe of textures, a topography of dried and fresh paint. It speaks to the physicality of artmaking, all that mixing, layering, and the sheer materiality of color. The way the light catches on the bristles of the brushes almost feels like you could reach out and touch them. The soft focus of the image, with its dark atmosphere, and the double exposure of Corinth’s face, makes it feel like a ghostly memory. There's something about this image that makes me think of late work by Philip Guston, that similar interest in revealing the artist at work in the studio. It's a reminder that art is a conversation across time, a layering of ideas and ways of seeing. It's rarely just one thing, and it embraces ambiguity over easy answers.