Sketch 1965

This is an ink ‘Sketch’ by Wols. The thing that I love about ink drawings is that they can be so immediate, so direct. Look at the marks here: nervous lines, hatching, stippling. I can imagine Wols making this work, maybe sitting at a cafe. What's so striking is that the world isn't solid here but instead a permeable membrane through which reality is constantly being re-negotiated. Like he’s trying to find the thing, he knows is there, hiding. I love how the forms emerge, shifting, finding each other. It’s like he's letting his mind wander, seeing what comes up. Maybe, he wanted to show us a world that is a bit unsettling and strange and he succeeded. His work reminds me of Paul Klee’s, in the way they both use a delicate line to create these whimsical, dreamlike compositions. It shows us how artists, across time, are always in dialogue.