Blank 1930 - 1936

This is a small paper sketch by Niels Larsen Stevns. It seems to be nothing but faint blue lines. But there's actually so much here, if we allow ourselves to look at it with a little curiosity. The first thing I notice is the pressure of the pencil; it's so light, like the artist was barely touching the paper. This kind of tentative mark-making feels very intimate. It’s like catching the artist in a moment of thought, a little daydream. There's a ghostly quality to the lines. It’s as if the artist wanted to suggest forms, rather than define them. Look closely and you can see suggestions of figures or faces, maybe even landscapes, but they dissolve as quickly as they appear. For me it is reminiscent of the work of Cy Twombly, who also embraced the beauty of the unfinished and the ephemeral. Ultimately, it reminds us that art is as much about the process of seeing and thinking.