Mennesker og sol c. 1915

Edvard Munch made this drawing, Mennesker og sol, with watercolor and pencil, and I think it's a lovely exercise in openness. Look at how thin the washes are, and how the figures are really just suggestions, not full descriptions. It feels like the beginning of a thought, something in process. See that red line cutting across the figure on the right? It's like a slash of pure feeling. I wonder if that kind of quick, immediate mark-making was a way for him to get past his own self-consciousness. This makes me think of other artists like Philip Guston, who also used loose, gestural marks to create figures that are both present and dissolving at the same time. What's so great about art is that it's not about answers, but about opening up possibilities.