Architectuurstudies c. 1906

This is a page of architectural studies by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, we don't know when it was made or with what, but it looks like pencil on paper to me. It's all about lines here, tentative and descriptive, and you can really see the artist feeling their way around the shapes. The thing that gets me is the visible process. Cachet hasn't tried to hide anything, you can see the corrections, the quick scribbles, and the notes jotted down. There's this one set of vertical lines with measurements between them - it really lays bare the nuts and bolts of building. It's not about the grand façade but the humble increments and ratios. Cachet reminds me of Agnes Martin in this regard, both of them find something very moving in a reduced, simple language of line. It highlights that art isn't about answers, it’s about the questions.