Siddi in Bed [recto] 1912

Erich Heckel made this charcoal drawing, Siddi in Bed, in 1912. It's such a spare image, isn't it? Just these black lines looping and defining a figure in space, a face with eyes closed. I can imagine Heckel with his charcoal, moving quickly, trying to capture a fleeting feeling of intimacy, of someone at rest. See how some of the lines are thick and bold, others so thin they almost disappear. There’s something very raw and immediate about the work. I wonder if Heckel was thinking about the tradition of drawing and how it relates to painting when he made it. It looks like he's trying to get at something essential, using the most basic of means. And it feels related to other artists of the time like Kirchner who were finding new ways to represent the world around them. It’s like they were all in conversation, pushing each other to see and feel differently.