Udkast til Ester Balles gravmæle 1906

This is a sketch for a grave monument, made by Niels Larsen Stevns, sometime in the early 20th century. It's on a small page from a notebook, and the artist uses a humble graphite pencil. What strikes me is the process here. It feels like Stevns is thinking aloud, working through ideas right on the page. There are multiple versions of the design, each slightly different, like he’s turning the monument around in his mind. Look at how the lettering is carefully inscribed, then crossed out and rewritten! It reminds me of my own studio practice, how one idea leads to another, and the messiness of that search. The grid of the page is visible underneath the drawing, giving it a grounding, like the first layer of a painting. And the way the lines are drawn, a little tentative, a little unsure, adds to the feeling of intimacy. It reminds you that even a monument, something solid and permanent, starts with a fragile idea. In a way, artists like Cy Twombly and also folk artists remind us of this ongoing exchange of ideas across time. I guess art is never really finished, is it?