The Oriental (L'Asiatique) 1939

Here's Henri Matisse's 1939 drawing, "The Oriental", made with charcoal on paper. Look at these lines – so simple, so direct. I imagine Matisse, charcoal in hand, circling his subject, trying to capture her essence. It’s like he's feeling his way through the form, trusting his intuition. It's interesting how little he puts in, yet how much he conveys. Take those eyes, heavy-lidded, gazing out – what are they seeing? And that extra floating mouth, just hanging out there? Are these elements of a face, or are they autonomous forms? I see the same searching quality in his paintings. I wonder if, for him, drawing was a way of thinking, of testing out ideas. Matisse and I are connected through our work. I feel like we're in this ongoing conversation about mark-making, about how a line can be both descriptive and expressive, about how to bring feeling into the world through a drawing.