Nickel:Spitzweg

What is art? A window to the world and a mirror of the soul, or merely a riddle in which one distinguishes between "original" and "forgery"? In "Spitzweg," the narrator learns from the eccentric Carl, who arrives at his school just before graduation, how art can be understood as a form of existence. The narrator is not only fascinated by Carl but also by his equally mysterious and intelligent classmate, Kirsten. After the art teacher, Mrs. Hügel, praises Kirsten's self-portrait for its "courage to be ugly," events spiral out of control: artworks are created and disappear, the girl appears and vanishes, and a feverish search begins, during which the three repeatedly gaze into the abysses of life.