Untitled 1986

This untitled graphite drawing was made by Jonathan Lasker, and I can't help but think about what it might have been like to create this piece. I imagine Lasker, sitting in his studio, with a very sharp pencil, making marks on the paper with a sense of rhythm and repetition. The horizontal and vertical lines create this optical backdrop, and it feels like a real push-pull dynamic with the foreground elements. The shapes seem almost playful in their abstraction. And in this work, you can see Lasker’s signature style of combining geometric patterns with organic forms, which creates a really interesting tension between control and chance. It almost reminds me of some drawings by Brice Marden, in that it's all about the process of mark-making. Ultimately, this piece feels like a kind of visual poem, inviting us to slow down and contemplate the simple act of drawing.