Seated Figure No.5 1945

Pierre Courtin made this drawing, Seated Figure No.5, with ink on paper. There’s something so vulnerable about line drawings, you know? The artist can’t hide behind colour, or smear the form into something else with texture. This image is all about the push and pull of pure line work. Imagine Courtin, hunched over the paper, hatching and cross-hatching to create tone and volume. How long did it take him to get that perfect balance of light and shadow, that geometric tangle just right? I love the way this feels both modern and ancient at the same time. The figure is almost robotic, with its sharp angles and simplified forms. But then, there's the vulnerability in the hand-drawn lines, the awkwardness of the pose, that connects it to a long history of artists trying to capture the human form. We’re all in conversation with each other, riffing on the same themes, and that’s what makes art so exciting!