Forskellige tegninger. (Af Anna Larsen Stevns ?) 1933 - 1934

Editor: This is "Forskellige tegninger," or "Various Drawings," from 1933-1934, attributed to Anna Larsen Stevns, though that's tentative. It’s pencil on paper, and it looks like a page torn from a sketchbook, filled with geometric shapes. I am interested in this work, I’m trying to get my head around it. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see an investigation of form driven by the available materials, paper and pencil. Notice the way the artist repeats and varies the shapes, almost as if testing the limits of the pencil and paper. It speaks to the accessibility of art making; that creation stems not from divine inspiration, but simple things like readily accessible tools and materials. How do you see that? Editor: So you're saying the focus isn’t so much on what the shapes represent, but on the act of drawing itself, and how limited materials can generate art. Is that a radical idea? Curator: In some ways, yes. For centuries, art history privileged the grand narrative and the artist’s genius. But a materialist approach draws our attention to the conditions of artistic production. It democratizes art by focusing on the labor and resources involved, challenging traditional distinctions between “high” art and everyday practice. Do the sketchbook and the shapes invite mass consumption, or solitary refinement? Editor: Well, since the sketchbook is available to all, it allows many to start doodling to come up with different shapes. The focus becomes that it's available to consume with an unlimited range of possibilities, and I feel a shift from thinking about this as someone else's precious work. Curator: Precisely. Seeing art this way encourages us to think critically about the systems that create and sustain art making, moving beyond individual expression to consider collective engagement with art and production. Editor: I’ve never thought of it like that before! The raw materials really change the meaning for me. Thanks for pointing out the artistic consumption, materiality, and democratization in this sketch.