Female nude with hand on her head 1917

Theo van Doesburg made this drawing of a "Female nude with hand on her head" with ink on paper. It's such a playful approach to the figure, breaking it down into these architectural blocks! There is a real sense of process in this piece. Look closely, and you can see the artist thinking through the pose, adjusting the forms, as if the nude is being constructed piece by piece right before our eyes. I love the way he uses hatching to create depth and shadow, like on the back of the chair. What I find particularly interesting is the way the figure becomes almost abstract, more like a diagram or a blueprint than a traditional nude. It reminds me a bit of some of Picasso's cubist experiments, but with a distinctly architectural sensibility. It is a refreshing reminder that art is always a conversation, a back-and-forth between ideas, styles, and interpretations.