Skitser til reliefferne på Hjørring centralbibliotek 1930 - 1938

This is one of Niels Larsen Stevns' sketches for reliefs at Hjørring central library. He made it with pencil on paper, and I love the provisional nature of these lines! You can tell Stevns is working out the figure’s posture and the way the forms occupy space. Look at how the weight of the figure is distributed, the dynamic suggestion of forward movement. The texture of the page is also doing some work here; the horizontal lines of the paper give a sense of grounding and stability to the ethereal sketch. There’s something quite beautiful about seeing the underpinnings of an artwork like this. It’s kind of like catching a glimpse behind the curtain, isn’t it? I'm reminded of other figure painters like Paula Modersohn-Becker, who embrace a process-oriented approach and show the traces of their handiwork. Like them, Stevns reminds us that art is a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas, with ambiguity welcomed.