Two Lions (Zwei Löwen) 1900 - 1945

Paul Gangolf sketched these two lions with ink on paper; the date is unknown, but he lived from 1879 to 1945. I wonder what Gangolf was thinking as he drew. What was he feeling? These lions don’t look fierce, but they do look penned in, with those bars behind. Those marks are so fast, economical, and yet so descriptive, they remind me of some of the things Picasso was doing around the same time. But Gangolf's lines have a charming, handmade quality all their own. Look how the bodies are built up from simple planes. That dark, bold ink gives such definition, and I love how the paper peeks through, giving the whole thing a kind of lightness. The inscription on the body of the lion is a complete mystery to me. Maybe it has to do with how he saw the world and what he wanted to communicate. So cool, right? The ways artists keep talking to each other over time.