Blank 1930 - 1936

Curator: Right, so next up we have a mixed media drawing by Niels Larsen Stevns, dating from 1930 to 1936. It’s currently held here at the SMK, and it's titled simply, "Blank." Editor: “Blank,” huh? Well, that pretty much nails it! My immediate reaction is a big question mark—it's like a visual palate cleanser between courses of something far more visually filling. Curator: I get that! The perceived emptiness might be off-putting, but consider this a moment to slow down. Given the time frame, the very deliberate "blankness" might represent a space for internal reflection in a period of upheaval. Editor: Ooh, I like that reading! So, you’re suggesting it’s less about the void and more about potential? A radical act of claiming space in the face of... well, you know, the encroaching doom of the thirties and what followed? Curator: Exactly! Also consider the medium. Stevns combines watercolour and colored pencil. It's deceptively simple—a mixed-media work in a minimalist form, perhaps signaling the possibility of a new beginning. Editor: Mmm, I notice tiny hints of color near the edges. Faint blues and yellows... like the faintest horizon line you can imagine. A promise, perhaps? And is that spotting I see? Foxing perhaps... the ravages of time! The trace evidence of this thing's life so far? Curator: Those spots definitely lend a textural richness. Maybe it suggests how even supposed ‘blankness’ carries its own history and marks of existence? No surface is ever truly empty of meaning. Editor: That certainly disrupts the initial sense of… nothingness, doesn’t it? It is amazing that Stevns manages to evoke such deep questions with so few deliberate marks. The potential of nothing… of blankness as its own statement! Curator: And from an activist perspective, that reclaiming of space can extend to other narratives—queer narratives, marginalized voices. Finding a space to exist, to create… in the face of pressure to disappear. Editor: Right—reclaiming not only physical space, but also temporal space. Taking a moment for reflection, for *being,* during a time that demanded constant production. I think I need to go look at this for another while longer...