Seminude with Arms Raised 1914

Egon Schiele made this drawing, Seminude with Arms Raised, with a pencil. I love how the lines repeat and overlap, creating a sense of movement and unease, like a body caught between poses, searching. The pencil lines are thin and scratchy, almost tentative, but they build up to create a powerful sense of form. There's a vulnerability in the way the figure is rendered, the lines hesitant and unsure, yet also raw and direct. Look at how the lines around the face and torso are scribbled, almost like he's trying to capture the energy of the body. The figure is not idealized, but rather presented with a certain starkness, a brutal honesty. It reminds me of some of Marlene Dumas' drawings, the way she captures the fragility and intensity of the human form with just a few simple marks. Art is just one big conversation, right? A way of seeing and feeling that gets passed down, changed, and reinterpreted over time.