Skitser af dyreskeletter 1900 - 1905

Editor: This is "Skitser af dyreskeletter," or "Sketches of Animal Skeletons," by Niels Larsen Stevns, made between 1900 and 1905 using pencil on paper. There's a haunting simplicity to these skeletal forms. What strikes you most about this work? Curator: The rawness, immediately. Sketches are interesting because they allow us to peer into the artist's process. What I see here isn't just an anatomical study, but an exploration of mortality and representation itself. Consider the social and intellectual climate at the turn of the century. Darwin's theories had already begun to fundamentally change the way people understood the human animal in relation to nature. What anxieties do you think might underpin these skeletal studies? Editor: Perhaps anxieties about our own animality, about being reduced to bones? Curator: Precisely. There’s a deconstruction happening. Larsen Stevns isn’s merely observing bones; he’s dissecting ideas about life, death, and the supposed divide between humans and the animal kingdom. The ‘realism’ tag also brings up questions of authenticity. How 'real' is an image of a skeleton, which is itself the residue of life? Can the drawing then offer a critique on how our culture creates and consumes images of death and decay? Editor: That's a lot to consider, but it makes me see the drawing as more than just a sketch, almost as a challenge to our assumptions about humanity's place in the world. Curator: And art's role in questioning those assumptions. I think this seemingly simple drawing serves as a potent reminder of the power of art to unearth our deepest fears and anxieties, while reminding us of our shared material reality. Editor: This was illuminating, thanks for sharing your perspective. Curator: Thank you for your questions; they opened up some thought-provoking angles to the work.