Tiergarten (Zoological Garden) 1922

Lovis Corinth made this etching, Tiergarten, using black ink on paper. Look at how he’s built the image from short, choppy strokes. It's like he's not just depicting the scene, but also showing us the active process of seeing. The texture is all in these marks. The massed, dense lines suggest the depth of the forest, but where they break apart, it gives way to light. It's almost like you could reach out and feel the rough bark of the trees, or the scratchy grass. Notice how this mark-making gives the whole piece a nervous energy. The strokes are so fleeting; they capture not just a visual likeness, but a feeling. Corinth reminds me of Munch, in how he uses mark-making to convey an emotional state. Art isn't just about copying what’s in front of you; it’s about how we feel and how we translate it onto paper.