Løse rids 1906

This is a little sketchbook drawing, made by Niels Larsen Stevns, probably with a graphite pencil, on a small page of squared paper. It's a jumble of loose lines. Some of them appear to be mapping out a face, others seem more abstract, like doodles made in a moment of free association. I love how the grid of the paper peeks through, acting almost like another layer of mark-making, grounding the sketch. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbles, but with a more intimate, tentative feel. See that darker patch in the lower centre, it is so smudgy it's like the artist changed his mind, or maybe rubbed it with a finger as if to blur the real and the imaginary. Like Agnes Martin, Stevns seems to be exploring the space between intention and accident, revealing the raw, unfiltered process of thought taking shape.