Girl Seated 1922

Istvan Szönyi made this drawing of a seated girl, with ink on paper. The diluted ink creates these hazy, blurred passages around the figure that give the image an airy quality. It’s all about process, right? Seeing the marks, the drips, the way the ink bleeds into the paper – it gives you insight into the artist’s movements. The process is really on display here. Look at the way Szönyi renders the shadows on the right side of her body with these bold, diagonal strokes. The lines give a sense of depth and volume, but they also flatten the image. And those dark, abstract shapes framing her figure, they create a sense of drama. Szönyi’s contemporary, Käthe Kollwitz, also used stark contrasts and bold lines to depict working class women in Germany. Like Kollwitz, Szönyi treats art-making as an ongoing conversation about seeing and feeling. It's a reminder that art is never finished, only abandoned.