Da løftede den paa en Gang sine Vinger... 1928

Fritz Syberg made this drawing with ink on paper. Look at the repetitive hatching in the tree trunks and reeds. The goose in flight has a different sort of energy—more diagrammatic. The landscape feels kind of flat, or stagey. It reminds me of a certain kind of folk art. I wonder if Syberg was interested in how children draw or what he knew about naive painting at the time. The repetitive marks make me think of Agnes Martin, though I'm not sure why. Maybe because they're both making marks that add up to a feeling. I know that feeling! It’s that feeling of just doing something over and over until it becomes something else, something you didn’t expect. That's what painting is for me. It's like one long, unfolding question.