Landskabsskitse, samt notat 1906

This landscape sketch and note was made by Niels Larsen Stevns, though we're not sure exactly when. You can really see the process here, how an artwork is made up of many different steps, changes and revisions. It's just pencil on paper, but it's how the artist uses the materials that matters. Look at the repeated diagonal strokes which build up tone and texture, or the use of thin straight lines which seem to follow the grid of the page itself. The paper is yellowed and stained, with handwriting above the image, and there are other sketches on the page opposite. This isn't a finished piece but a record of something seen, or thought about. The use of graphite on a grid, the contrast between the freehand gesture and the rigid structure of the page, reminds me of Agnes Martin. There’s something about the simplicity that allows for so many possible interpretations. Art is an ongoing conversation, and a dance between intention and accident.