Blank 1864 - 1941

Niels Larsen Stevns left us this open book, simply titled “Blank.” I love the way the pages sit, slightly yellowed with age. The paper is surprisingly dense, like a heavy watercolor stock. It feels as though it might have been waiting, patiently, for something to happen. It reminds me of when I work on primed canvas, that moment just before you begin, when the possibilities feel endless. Look at the grain of the paper, and the way the light catches on its surface. There is a real beauty in the untouched page, in the anticipation of what could be. It’s interesting that he left it like this, perhaps suggesting that the real work of art is not the finished product, but the process of thinking and creating. Maybe he was making a statement about the value of emptiness, about the potential that lies within a blank space. Much like Agnes Martin’s grids or Rauschenberg's white paintings, the blankness itself becomes the art.