Mein altes Bett 1942

Karl Wiener made this drawing, "Mein altes Bett," which translates as "My Old Bed," with pencil in 1942. Just look at those ghostly outlines and geometric shapes! It's like the memory of a bed, a dream of a bed, floating in a world of circles and triangles. I can just imagine Karl there, pencil in hand, trying to capture something that is both familiar and strange. What was he thinking as he drew those lines? Was he remembering a particular night, a particular dream? Did he wake up and immediately start drawing this? For me, that starkness of the pencil lines, the way they intersect and overlap, it’s like he's trying to find the essence of what a bed *is*. Beds are supposed to be about comfort, rest, but there is an anxiety in the drawing, which speaks to the wider unease of the time. It's a really intimate and compelling look into the artist’s personal world.