Attack (Attentat) 1915

George Grosz made this drawing, Attack, with graphite, on paper. The drawing is all tangled lines and scratchy marks. It's like Grosz attacked the paper with his pencil, which makes sense given the title. The lines feel jittery and raw, like he's trying to capture a feeling more than a picture. There’s a cloud of radiating marks in the top left, maybe that’s the bomb going off, or maybe that’s the flash of anger, or anxiety. Look how the lines pull apart the buildings. They’re all fractured. And the people are caught in this mess of marks. They look like they’re flailing and falling. It’s like the city is imploding. It feels like you're right there in the middle of the chaos. Grosz really knew how to turn a drawing into a punch in the gut. He’s like Otto Dix, with that same biting sense of how messed up the world could be. But Grosz, he’s got this way of making you feel it in your bones.