Study of Heads [recto] 

Curator: This sheet of paper features a drawing titled “Study of Heads [recto]”. It's rendered in pencil and portrays several figural sketches. What’s your initial response? Editor: My first impression is one of fragmented thoughts. The figures feel ephemeral, like half-formed memories sketched quickly before they fade away completely. Curator: I agree. The artist’s focus seems to be on capturing raw emotion rather than achieving photorealistic representation. We see clear lines and a kind of anatomical study in progress that makes me think about art-making and labor as related, maybe the artist was a teacher, or teaching themselves by copying available models. Editor: The contrasting color adds an interesting dimension too, between the red chalk figure and the grayscale heads—which seems to create visual rhythm, don’t you think? The gray is fading a bit which gives a vintage feel to the whole image. Curator: Perhaps that color represents a specific teaching material, and suggests we look for more social and historic context—how available and accessible that type of drawing material was to students at the time, in that region of the world. Editor: Maybe, or, speaking more abstractly, it could symbolize something about the contrast between youth and experience, or fleeting ideas set against the backdrop of deep thoughts. And notice how each head turns, or faces, the light, the figure right above seems to be almost sunbathing with her hand reaching up, could be about being touched or the power of physical labor, perhaps a model in a working-class environment at the time it was created? Curator: It certainly makes me curious to investigate other similar drawings and understand more deeply how artists learned and drew from what they saw, around the time it was created. Editor: Indeed. Focusing on the way the artist framed their thought can inspire a profound consideration of time, experience, and emotion.