Ducdalven 1979

Marinus Fuit made ‘Ducdalven’ with pencil on paper, with subtle shading. The gentle gradients here, from light to dark gray, feel almost like a form of meditation. You know, when I look at a drawing like this, I start thinking about pressure – how much force the artist put behind each stroke. It’s not just about the image, but also about the physical act of drawing, the back and forth, the building up of tone. See how the cylinders and domes have a kind of soft glow? It’s all about the delicacy of the pencil work. There is a precision in this work that reminds me of some of the architectural studies of the Bauhaus. The even light and smooth surfaces also reminds me of the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, but where de Chirico has colour and strange cityscapes, Fuit brings us a simpler collection of almost mechanical forms.