Lust c. 1921

Karl Wiener created this piece, titled ‘Lust’, using crayon and ink. I just love the raw, almost frantic energy here. The eyes scattered across the surface pull you in, don't they? Look at the way the red crayon streaks vibrate against the delicate ink hatching, like looking through a screen. I imagine Wiener hunched over this, his hand flying across the page, trying to capture something feverish and intense. The colours themselves are doing something. They're clashing, almost fighting for attention. And those eyes – some are wide open, others are half-closed or hiding. Do you see the push and pull between seeing and being seen? It's like he's throwing all these fragmented perspectives at us, daring us to make sense of it. It reminds me of other expressionist painters, like Kirchner, or maybe even some of Guston's later work – that willingness to just lay it all out there, messy and unresolved. Painting is always about asking questions, not giving answers.