Studie af hattemagerlaugets fane. Notater og farveangivelser 1930 - 1936

Niels Larsen Stevns made this sketch of a hatmakers guild flag, complete with notes and color indications, at an unknown date using pencil on paper. It's a peek behind the curtain, isn't it? I love seeing the bare bones of an idea, all the false starts and corrections that make up the messy process of artmaking. Here, the texture of the paper and the varying pressure of the pencil line become crucial elements. Look at the flurry of lines around the central motif of the flag. They're not just mapping out shapes; they're capturing movement, a sense of the flag fluttering in the breeze. The quick annotations and color swatches around the edges give us a sense of Stevns’s thought process, like a jazz musician riffing on a theme. This piece reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s later work, that sense of playful searching, of embracing the unfinished as a form in itself. For me, art is about this kind of conversation, about constantly questioning and reimagining what we see.