Skewers and Holder c. 1935

Francis Borelli made this drawing of skewers and holder, we don't know exactly when, using graphite on paper. It's pretty straightforward, but there's something about the obsessive, repetitive mark-making that really grabs me. The whole thing is rendered in such a way as to emphasize the linear, the diagrammatic. The gray tones and shadows create a sense of volume and depth, but it's all built up through these tiny, almost frantic strokes. The texture of the metal is evoked with a kind of nervous energy, which makes me think about how our hands make art, how the drawing contains our whole selves. Look at the way the skewers themselves taper to these sharp points – the artist really took time to draw the points. Borelli had a long life, living to be 100 years old, and I wonder what other drawings he made, and how his style might have changed over time, or remained consistent. It is in conversation with the work of other artists, like Vija Celmins, who also used graphite to capture everyday objects with incredible precision. The drawing is a reminder that art isn't about grand gestures, necessarily, but about seeing the world with fresh eyes.