Skitser af sværd, langknive, pallasker 1933 - 1934

Editor: This piece is called "Skitser af sværd, langknive, pallasker," created by Niels Larsen Stevns between 1933 and 1934. It’s an ink drawing on paper, currently housed at the SMK in Copenhagen. What strikes me is the raw quality, almost like a study of weapon forms. What stands out to you about it? Curator: What interests me is how Stevns uses such basic materials – ink and paper – to explore forms associated with power and, frankly, violence. It's fascinating to consider what the selection and reproduction of these forms signals about the artist's broader engagements. Can you sense a tension in the work between the clean geometry of the blades and their implied use in physical combat? Editor: I see what you mean, there's a deliberate focus on shape, and a lack of contextualisation. You mention materiality, is it also important to think about where he got these materials from? I mean, the type of ink or the specific paper he chose? Curator: Absolutely. Was the paper mass-produced, or handmade? What was the process of making ink in the 1930s? These details embed the drawing within a system of production and consumption. Even something as seemingly simple as the line quality is influenced by the tools available to the artist. How does that influence the end work? Editor: That’s a really interesting way to look at it. So, it's not just about what's depicted but how and with what it's depicted that adds meaning? Curator: Precisely. Stevns’s sketch exists not in a vacuum but within a complex web of material conditions, the means of production shaping his art, so the ideas about high and low art start blurring out and raise other possibilities. Editor: I never thought about drawing in quite that way before, I’ll definitely be thinking more about the material conditions of art moving forward. Curator: Glad to hear it. These seemingly minor material decisions greatly inform how an artwork communicates.