Huis c. 1909s

Alexander Shilling made this small sketch, called ‘Huis,’ probably in a notebook, with a graphite pencil. Look at the economy of line, and how much information he gives us with so little. The left page has these vertical lines suggesting trees, and a cluster of horizontal strokes that build into a vision of a building. On the right, we have another structure, maybe a boat, or another house. There’s a real feeling of just putting down the bare minimum, and that feels very modern to me. I love these kinds of drawings. The realness of the immediate experience of drawing something. I guess he was interested in light and how it lands, and in describing that in a very direct way. It reminds me of Guston’s late, simple ink drawings - Shilling has got that same pared down sense of something fleeting. Art is a conversation, not a monologue.