Männerporträt 1910

This is a portrait of a man made by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in black ink on paper. I just love the confidence of the line. Look how quickly Kirchner seems to have worked here, the ink still wet as he lays down each stroke. He must have been in the zone, responding to the sitter in real time, following the curve of the nose, the set of the jaw, the sweep of the hair. The negative space is as important as the positive here – the beige of the paper peeks through, giving the portrait air and light. I'm drawn to the hatching around the man's face, the way it both defines and dissolves the form. Kirchner's mark-making reminds me of Egon Schiele, another master of the expressive line. But where Schiele is angular and neurotic, Kirchner is more fluid, more open. Like a conversation, each mark is a response to the one before, building up to a kind of truth.