Noord-Afrikaanse straat met een ruiterstandbeeld c. 1936

This is Cornelis Vreedenburgh’s sketch of a North African street with an equestrian statue, probably made with graphite on paper. The way Vreedenburgh uses line here really speaks to me about the fundamentals of artmaking, that playful moment where the hand just tries to capture what the eye sees. Look at how thin the marks are, so delicate and tentative, building up the forms like a slow dance. There's a real sense of transparency and layering. The statue itself is just a few scribbled gestures, but it totally conveys the monumentality of the thing. And the way the buildings are suggested with these quick, shorthand marks—it’s like he’s mapping the space as much as depicting it. It reminds me a bit of Cy Twombly, that loose, gestural approach to capturing a sense of place. Ultimately, what I appreciate most is how Vreedenburgh embraces the incomplete, inviting us to fill in the gaps with our own imaginations.