Mountain Stream with Bathers 1934

This is an etching by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner called "Mountain Stream with Bathers.” Look at all those lines, like he's scratching right into the plate! I can imagine him, bent over, totally engrossed in the process, the acid biting into the metal, each mark a decision, a feeling, an impression. You know, I’ve done a bit of etching myself, and I can tell you, it's a messy, unpredictable process. Those dark, almost frantic lines – they speak to the energy, the tension he must have felt. Are those figures emerging from the chaos? Or are they dissolving back into it? It reminds me a little of the German Expressionists like Emil Nolde, who were also trying to capture raw emotion. You feel the artist laying himself bare. It makes you think about how we all, as artists, are in dialogue with each other, across time, riffing on the same themes, the same struggles, the same joys. I think that painting or printing like this isn't just about making a picture, it's about thinking through a problem, feeling through a moment, and opening up a space for someone else to do the same.