A Corner of a Rental Garden 1909

Fritz Schulze made this drawing called "A Corner of a Rental Garden" with graphite on paper. The drawing is almost entirely grayscale, made up of thousands of tiny marks. It's like Schulze built this garden bit by bit with simple lines, as if he were actually building a little garden of marks. Look at the water flowing from the trough. The marks create the illusion of movement and light hitting the surface. It reminds me that art-making is a process that unfolds over time, with each mark responding to the ones that came before it. You can see he has a great feel for light and shadow, turning simple marks into detailed textures. The way he renders the trees, bare and reaching, and the simple shed in the background, creates a kind of quiet emotion. The drawing has a stillness that reminds me of some drawings by Alfred Kubin, who was also interested in rendering inner states of mind with strange landscapes. But where Kubin is dramatic, Schulze is so restrained and gentle. With this drawing Schulze shows us how much can be done with almost nothing.