Two women talking c. 1935

Curator: Oh, look, this is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's drawing, "Two women talking," from around 1935. It’s currently residing here at the Städel Museum. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: Well, it strikes me as an exercise in minimalist materiality—ink on paper. The visible labor lies in the artist’s hand. There's a sparseness to it; not exactly rough, but certainly immediate. The artist almost attacks the paper! Curator: Absolutely, and you can almost sense the speed of execution. The faces are so intriguing! The woman on the right is all angles, sharp edges. She seems very consciously styled in her hat and dress. The ink strokes are quite bold for detailing hair and fingers… The figure to the left has been quickly rendered in just a few strokes. The difference in detailing almost invites us to try and decode what they mean together. Editor: That contrast gets at a material question, doesn't it? It looks as though a lighter wash of ink was applied and the expressive linework was overlaid later. Is Kirchner signaling differences in social standing or labor roles, by distinguishing women in this way? Or simply depicting what one had on and the other didn't? Curator: I find it touching that Kirchner made the artwork near the end of his career when he lived isolated from other artists and influences, while in exile in Switzerland. I get a strange feeling of the conversation they're having. Maybe it is a memory, a phantom exchange… Perhaps both women are aspects of a single personality. Editor: That hits me, too. And exile certainly lends itself to memories replaying, twisting, haunting. Kirchner was known for being highly attuned to modern city life. So even in isolation, the drawing seems to explore those past relationships, and how they shape a person. A social residue imprinted on ink and paper. Curator: Exactly! But look closer: Kirchner lets that expressiveness push all the way to caricature. So despite that seriousness, there is an acerbic humor in there too. He lets go. Editor: True! By choosing to depict two figures seemingly gossiping he does make me consider them as commodities too, being subjects of idle conversation or of each other's analysis… Curator: In its rawest form, it feels incredibly intimate but strangely detached. And that tension keeps me hooked. Editor: It's those quick choices, the economy of means, that leaves us, well me, to wonder at the labor conditions inherent to that intimacy. It's almost a sketch of consciousness. Curator: Well put! It is precisely within that duality of interiority and sharp-edged critique that Kirchner excels. Editor: Exactly; he allows materiality and social context to talk to each other.