Fraught Relationships

“I have unfinished business with expressionism,” explains Natalya Hughes when speaking about her artistic examination of the 20th-century German painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The Brisbane-based artist has been studying Kirchner, particularly his paintings depicting two models known as Franzi and Marzella. “Kirchner is an incredible artist,” says Hughes, “but it’s difficult for me to just gloss over all his work and so, I’ve focused on the most difficult parts.”

I’m struck by, and I query her about the title: “Are these girls trapped? Why aren’t they considered ‘women’?” Hughes’s answer, despite my awareness of the history of the male gaze, still startles me. “They are quite literally girls … I think the youngest was 13 years old.”