Øjenvidenskildring af slaget ved Svendstrup mose. Afskrift efter Niels Krag (?) 1933 - 1934

This page from a sketchbook, made by Niels Larsen Stevns, is covered in a cursive script. You can imagine him sitting in a room, or perhaps outside, writing, pausing, and then starting again. Writing is a physical thing, like painting, and the surface of the page makes me think of the surface of a canvas. The pale blue lines feel like a grid, a kind of architecture that holds the words in place. I love how the artist uses pressure and rhythm to form each letter, each word. Look at how the dark, looping strokes give way to light, airy connections between the letters. It’s like a dance, or even a battle, as the title suggests! It makes me think about how we are always in dialogue with the past, how we borrow and transform the ideas of those who came before us. We leave our mark, just like Stevns did here, with his pen and ink, adding our own voice to the ever-evolving conversation of art.