Exterieur van de bibliotheek van Malling Abbey 1858

Editor: So, this is Gerrit Postma's "Exterieur van de bibliotheek van Malling Abbey," made in 1858 with pencil, pen and ink. It’s a very delicate drawing; almost ephemeral in its lightness. I am curious, what strikes you when you look at it? Curator: The labor invested in this delicate pencil work is quite revealing. Postma is depicting architecture, yet the very materials used – pencil and paper – speak to a particular mode of artistic production and consumption in 19th century landscape art. Did Postma perhaps create this as study? To examine materials? Editor: That’s interesting. It does seem almost like a practice piece with those soft lines and lack of shading. I hadn't considered the "means of production" itself being so significant. Curator: Exactly. How does the choice of such a readily available and inexpensive medium like pencil affect our understanding of the abbey and its function as a religious, and potentially economic entity? Would the drawing be perceived differently if rendered in, say, oil paint? What can we say about the context of the Abbey itself as a work place, by the labor the artist employs? Editor: I suppose the pencil lends itself to a quicker study, more easily reproducible. And if it were in oils, maybe the focus would be on the grandeur and permanence of the abbey rather than a fleeting moment of observation? Curator: Precisely. Consider the social and economic structures that enabled both the abbey’s construction and Postma's artistic practice. How does this artwork participate in those networks of labor and materiality? Editor: That’s a really helpful perspective. I’m now thinking less about the abbey as just a subject, and more about the systems that allowed both it and this drawing to exist in the first place. Curator: Indeed. Art exists within these interconnected networks; the means of making always shapes the work.