Letters from the series Poems in Drawings 1930

Mikuláš Galanda made this drawing, Letters from the series Poems in Drawings, with ink, and I love how simple, yet elusive, it is. There’s a leaf, and a sort of maze, and these semi-circular marks, or notations, like sound waves rippling outwards. The leaf is outlined with a confident line, but then filled with smaller, more tentative marks, like he’s unsure whether to commit to the form or let it dissolve. And look at how Galanda drags the ink across the page, making this sort of shadowy blur that shoots from under the leaf, like a comet’s tail. It’s so gestural, so alive! It reminds me of Cy Twombly, who also made these kinds of scribbly, poetic marks that seem to capture a fleeting moment or feeling. Ultimately, it’s a reminder that art isn’t about perfection or representation, but about the messy, imperfect, and beautiful process of trying to make sense of the world around us.