Two girls 1926

Curator: This drawing, simply titled "Two Girls," was created by Hermann Lismann in 1926, utilizing pencil and dry media on paper. You can find it here at the Städel Museum. What’s your immediate response to it? Editor: Melancholy. It’s fragile, almost like a memory sketched from the edge of a dream. You can almost smell the paper. There is something unfinished and incredibly honest about it. Curator: Absolutely, the visible pencil lines reveal the artistic process so clearly. Lismann emphasizes line and form, really capturing their youth while depicting these figures. He highlights the material properties by leaving his work so bare. Editor: Right, there is the use of a utilitarian medium like pencil on paper, a common and accessible material, yet this choice contradicts the emotional intensity in it. Is it meant to democratize portraiture, showing two ordinary people instead of elevating the subject? Curator: Perhaps. The girls' clothing and hairstyles reflect the fashion of the time. Also the intimacy of the pose, one girl’s hand resting on the other’s shoulder, tells a story, or rather, hints at one. They’re looking at something together. Editor: And the subtle social critique is woven into that choice of material as well. What are they reading? What is this image supposed to tell? Curator: Maybe that's where Lismann excels - it evokes quiet companionship and a sense of shared contemplation but we are still not sure how that message can be transmitted. Editor: Yes. It’s this rawness and unfinished feel which transforms the simple pencil on paper into a really tangible link. This artwork brings forth a complex feeling using minimal means. The physical materials contribute to the power of an unsaid emotion. Curator: The deliberate imperfection draws us closer, allowing us to see the delicate labor, so different to highly-polished and produced images that we’re so used to nowadays. Editor: Indeed. It is a really potent portrait. So delicate but carrying a weighty expression. Curator: Agreed. It certainly stays with you.