Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife – I 1914

This is Lovis Corinth's "Joseph and Potiphar's Wife – I," made with etching, and it’s all about lines, isn't it? A tangled mess of them! There's a real rawness to the work, and it feels like you can see the artist grappling with the story right there on the plate. Look at Potiphar's wife, how her outstretched hand, rendered with these frantic, scratchy lines, seems to grab at the air. It’s like she's trying to hold onto something that's already slipping away. And Joseph, twisting away, rendered with a completely different kind of energy. The physical act of etching mirrors the struggle, the tension, the desperation of the scene. You can almost feel the needle digging into the plate, the artist working it and reworking it, trying to capture something fleeting and impossible. It reminds me a little of Kollwitz, in the way she uses line to talk about really difficult subjects. Artmaking is a process of embracing ambiguity, isn't it?