Studie 1923

Alexander Shilling's 'Studie' looks like it was made with the simplest of tools: paper and maybe a very hard pencil. It’s almost like he wanted to capture an idea before it disappeared. You can barely see the marks he made, faint lines hinting at forms, like a whisper of a memory. It's all about subtlety here; the texture of the paper is almost as important as the drawing itself. It makes you wonder about the act of seeing, doesn't it? How much can you suggest with just a few strokes? The almost blank page reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin's delicate grids, where the faintest lines create a whole world of feeling. In both, it's not about what's there, but the potential, the space for something to emerge. And maybe, that's what art is all about: not giving answers, but opening up possibilities.