Vier Männer in Uniform (?) (Four Men Wearing Uniforms) [p. 7] 

Editor: This is “Four Men Wearing Uniforms” by Max Beckmann, a pencil drawing. The figures are vaguely defined, sketchy. What strikes me is the repetitive, almost industrial process suggested by their similar attire and blank faces. How might we read this drawing in relation to the labor it depicts? Curator: Indeed. This is not just about portraiture; it's about the *making* of identity through the uniform, through social and industrial forces. Beckmann’s hasty strokes, the very process of applying pencil to paper, mimics the rapid and perhaps thoughtless creation of the modern military subject. Consider also, what does the inexpensive, readily available medium, pencil, tell us? Editor: Perhaps that this kind of regimentation, this mass-production of the military man, is commonplace, even disposable. Not rendered in valuable oil paint but something we can easily get. Curator: Precisely! And beyond its cheapness and disposable properties, look at how he applies pressure. It indicates Beckmann's experience of war and his deep understanding of its socio-economic dimensions. He depicts men dehumanized through production—their identities surrendered to a uniform, a process, a machine. Is this rendering efficient or emotional? Editor: It feels intentionally unemotional and critical, like he’s commenting on a bleak system that transforms men into objects, stripping away their individuality with quick, repetitive actions like the very ones he uses in drawing. It speaks volumes. Curator: Yes, consider the drawing then less a depiction of *men* and more of a commentary of how they have been forged from materiality and circumstance. It is almost as if the uniforms manufacture them. The pencil line is itself a method of socio-historical inquiry. Editor: That perspective has reshaped my understanding completely.