Tea Dance (Tanz Kaffee) c. 1925

George Grosz made this drawing, Tea Dance, with ink on paper. It's all about lines, quick, nervous, like the city itself. You can almost hear the jazz, that frenetic energy. It’s like Grosz grabbed a pen and just let it rip, capturing the whole scene in one go. The paper’s pretty bare, letting those lines do all the work. Look at the faces, all sharp angles and exaggerated features, really laying bare the emotional temperature of the room. The bodies are intertwined, almost collapsing in on themselves. I keep coming back to the line that defines the jaw of the woman at the bottom right - it has a real sense of weight and character that gives a lot of energy to the whole piece. Grosz is totally owning the space, throwing shade like nobody's business! His work reminds me of Otto Dix, another master of satire, who used paint with the same kind of brutal honesty. Art's always talking to itself, right? Always riffing off each other, making something new out of the chaos.