Studie van een liggende vrouw, slapend op een bank 1892 - 1916

Rik Wouters made this drawing of a reclining woman, asleep on a bench, with ink on paper. It’s all about line, right? But it's not just any line; it’s a searching, wandering kind of line. I love the way that the shapes have been built up, tentatively, through this layering of strokes. The artist is not afraid to let the line be itself, to have its own character. Check out the lines which define the arm that is resting on the pillow, see how they are thicker and darker, repeated to create a sense of weight and volume, a concentration of energy and attention that contrasts with the lightness of the rest of the figure. This kind of drawing reminds me of the way Guston drew, all those fuzzy, uncertain marks which somehow conjure a vivid sense of the world. Both artists seem to be suggesting that art is not about fixed meanings, but about keeping the conversation open.