Two Cocottes c. 1910

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this drawing, Two Cocottes, with ink and crayon. The marks are so raw, so immediate. You can sense the energy of the hand moving across the page. It’s like he’s trying to capture a fleeting moment, not just represent it. Look at the crayon marks, especially in the hats. There’s a looseness, an almost scribbled quality, that gives them volume without really defining their shape. They're a collection of strokes and gestures that somehow add up to a hat, to a person. It’s like he’s drawing the idea of a hat, more than the hat itself. And that wild jumble of lines above the women’s heads? It’s like a visual metaphor for the chaotic energy of the city, all those lines pushing and pulling, creating this sense of vibrancy and unease. Like a German Expressionist, Kirchner distorts reality to get at a deeper emotional truth. His work always reminds me of Edvard Munch, that idea of art as a scream or a cry, a raw expression of inner turmoil. Art’s just one big conversation, right? A series of interpretations.