Study for "Chinese Information Travel"—Profile 1980

This graphite drawing on paper is Larry Rivers's study for "Chinese Information Travel"—Profile. It looks like he was trying to get something down fast, maybe from another image, pinning the likeness of a figure on horseback with a flurry of marks. I imagine Rivers in his studio, cigarette in mouth, squinting as he makes a start, stops, and starts again. These aren’t timid lines; they have a searching, intuitive quality. Like he’s feeling his way through the subject. You can see where he's doubled back, redrawn a contour, adjusted a form. It reminds me of Cy Twombly, or even some of Jasper Johns's more figurative sketches. Rivers’s lines are so immediate, so provisional. But what I find most interesting is the way he's captured the horse’s energy and movement with such minimal means. There’s a real lightness and grace to the drawing, a sense of the ephemeral. It reminds us that all artists, no matter how different, are connected through a shared language and practice. They are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas, inspiring one another’s creativity.