Kopf mit Hut, Gesicht verworfen (Head with a Hat) [p. 64] 

Curator: Today we're looking at "Head with a Hat, Face Discarded" from Max Beckmann's sketchbook, around page 64. This seems to be pencil and possibly ink on paper, but the starkness belies the possible layering of materials, doesn't it? Editor: That title! 'Face discarded' — that's instantly what hits you, right? It's more of a feeling than a finished piece, you know? This kind of frantic energy... almost a residue of an emotional state. Curator: Indeed. This hasty sketch is part of his larger exploration of portraiture that often depicted those disaffected following the First World War. Notice how even a quickly rendered image manages to speak to broader anxieties and cultural issues of his time. Editor: Exactly, he catches something in-between, I'd say, which isn't to say the drawing's deficient at all but somehow even stronger for what he does catch with so few lines, barely even needing shading. And it definitely resonates – there's this feeling of displacement and introspection, right? Almost a reluctant glance toward some unavoidable problem. Curator: Beckmann himself was deeply affected by his experience serving in the medical corps during the war, his own worldview and practice completely fractured. While a sketch, pieces like this echo elements seen in some of his more realized lithographs and paintings, with his recurring use of distorted figures and his tendency to eschew idealism. Editor: See, I think what's cool is that it’s just so direct. There isn't any polish. If anything, the rawness just really cuts to the quick about vulnerability and seeing what you are when there are no excuses. Curator: Agreed; by looking at it through the context of Expressionism and his own personal traumas, the figure almost becomes a representation of the human condition in Post-War Europe, shedding light on those experiencing loss, doubt, and a sense of moral ambiguity. Editor: Right. Art as this kind of social barometer. All these little drawings—the quick glimpse—it gives me goosebumps. Curator: For me, it reinforces the importance of these often overlooked pieces in artists' sketchbooks. Editor: Yes, sometimes, I think it is where the honest things stay.