Figuurstudies 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made these figure studies using pencil on paper. And you can see, right from the start, that the drawing process is a journey of discovery. Look at the marks; they’re not trying to hide. You see the sketchy lines, the build-up of tone, the erasures maybe? Israels allows the drawing to remain open, a field of possibility. The texture of the paper almost becomes another layer in the composition. Focus on the darker hatched area, its almost like a little abstract painting in itself. It's as if Israels is thinking through the medium, each mark responding to the previous one in a back and forth. Thinking about other artists who explore similar territory, the gestural drawings of someone like Cy Twombly come to mind. Both artists embrace the provisional, finding beauty in the unfinished. Art, in the end, is not about answers; it's about the questions we ask along the way.