Tegning 1971

This is a drawing by Jan Groth, and right away, I'm thinking about the energy held in a simple line. The mark-making is so direct, so clear. The line varies in weight, and you can feel the artist's hand – the pressure, the speed. I'm really drawn to the area at the top, where these vertical lines gather and clump together, feeling almost sculptural. There's a real physicality to the charcoal or graphite, a texture that makes me want to reach out and touch it. But then, look at the long diagonal lines on either side, how they create this tension, almost like a stretched rubber band about to snap. Groth reminds me of Agnes Martin in a way, both artists using spare gestures to create a kind of emotional space, embracing ambiguity over fixed meaning. It's about feeling, more than knowing.