The Fall into Infinity 1918

Walter Gramatté made this etching, "The Fall into Infinity", sometime during his short life. The marks here are like frantic scratches, aren't they? A process of emotional excavation, maybe. The composition is pretty wild, with this figure tumbling headfirst, and a hand reaching out towards some kind of halo, or is it a void? Look at the way the lines are built up, especially around the head and face. It's a tangle of marks, but they create such an expressive portrait. You can almost feel the desperation, the fear, or maybe even the exhilaration of falling. The whole thing feels like a raw nerve. Like Egon Schiele, Gramatté was exploring the depths of human emotion, pushing the boundaries of expression. It’s not just about what we see, but how we feel when we see it.