Pirouetting Dancer c. 1931 - 1932

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this watercolor, Pirouetting Dancer, which is now here at the Städel Museum. The painting's got this raw, immediate feel, like Kirchner was working fast, trying to capture a fleeting moment, a gesture. The colors aren't blended so much as laid down in blocks, right? There's this yellow background, then the dancer in her lilac-purple, kind of like she's almost fading into the light. And those thick black lines? They're so bold, they almost vibrate against the other colors. I love how the tutu is suggested, rather than described, just a few lines to give it form, which gives a sense of movement. Look at the figure on the right, it’s almost completely obscured by these black marks, as if they're pushing their way into the painting. For me, it is the most interesting part of the composition. It feels like Kirchner’s showing us how he sees, how he feels the space around the dancer, rather than just painting what's there. Think about Egon Schiele, how he uses line and color to dig into the emotional core of his subjects. Kirchner does something similar here, using the material qualities of paint to create a mood, an experience, not just a representation.