Dancing 1922

This etching, ‘Dancing’ by Wilhelm Oesterle, features a flurry of linear marks scratched into a plate, a dance of lines creating a figure in motion. Imagine Oesterle bent over the plate, incising these marks, each one a tiny, deliberate act. I can almost feel the artist's hand, guiding the tool, making decisions about where to dig in, where to let the line fade, or even disappear. Was he listening to music? Was he also dancing? The image feels like a capturing of a feeling, a sketch of a fleeting moment. It’s not about perfect anatomical rendering, but about expression, that’s what I find interesting. The lines themselves have a kind of wiry energy, and it makes me think about other artists who were playing with line and movement, like Kirchner or Heckel. Artists are always having this conversation across time, inspiring each other. And that, to me, is a kind of dance too.