Aphrodite Study 1993

This is Brice Marden’s *Aphrodite Study*, and it's all about how a drawing can be made using only a few simple materials, ink and paper, to capture something really complex, a goddess. The lines in this piece, they’re not just lines, they’re almost like a dance, aren’t they? They thicken and thin, and pool into shapes, creating a kind of choreography on the page. Marden’s mark making in this piece feels intuitive, like a stream of consciousness made visible. See how the ink bleeds, almost blurring the lines into each other, suggesting a fluidity, like water, that gives this study a real sense of movement. The whole drawing feels light and airy, like a breeze, and yet the network of lines is so dense, so tangled, that they suggest something more substantial, a real presence. This work reminds me a little of Cy Twombly, in the way it uses line and gesture to create something both chaotic and beautiful. What I love about it is that it celebrates the unfinished, the imperfect, the ongoing conversation between the artist and the work itself.