Energies (Study) 1967

Constantin Flondor made this drawing, called Energies (Study), using pastels and pencils. It looks like he built it up slowly, line by line, letting the composition emerge, a bit at a time, through adding to it and taking away. I like the tension between the pale green background and the bright pinks, oranges, and whites of the marks. It feels like a system of codes or signs that haven't been fully cracked yet. The artist has left them for us to work out what they mean. I’m looking at these gestures. I wonder what it was like for Flondor to make them. It’s like he’s trying to map out energies, feelings, or movements in the world. There's a conversation happening here with other artists and different eras of art-making. He's pulling from different places to make something new. It's an ongoing process. Nothing is ever really fixed or totally known.