The Green Bridge (Die grune Brucke) 1912

This etching called The Green Bridge is by Lyonel Feininger. You can see the artist scratching and scraping into the metal plate, and the print appearing like a ghostly image. I love the idea of Feininger making this, because it feels so hand-wrought. You can feel him working it, like he's digging and pulling. Look at the texture – the little dots and dashes that make up the cobblestone street, the figures. What’s so cool is how these marks create depth and movement. There’s a real energy, like everything’s buzzing and alive. I’m always curious about the relationship between modern art and the city. Feininger, like many of his contemporaries, was trying to capture something new about urban life, its speed, its chaos, its beauty. This etching reminds me of other German Expressionist artists who grappled with similar themes. They were all in conversation with each other, pushing the boundaries of what art could be.