Studier af blomster med ats- og farveangivelser 1919

Curator: Welcome. We’re standing before Niels Larsen Stevns’ "Studier af blomster med ats- og farveangivelser," or "Studies of Flowers with Hints of Acids and Colors," created in 1919. The piece is crafted with colored pencil on paper. Editor: Wow, immediately it feels like looking over someone's shoulder while they're deep in thought! I love the almost frantic energy of the pencil lines and the scribbled notes. Curator: Yes, the drawing reveals the artist’s process. The colored pencils allow for a quick study of floral forms, and it shows an early modernist sensibility to render form economically. It seems he was capturing their essence more than providing photographic accuracy. We should remember that scientific objectivity during this time started yielding space for personal subjectivity. Editor: Totally! And these scribbled color notes next to the flowers—like “violet,” or “light blue” -- it’s as if he is in conversation with himself, or preserving an ephemeral moment. Did Niels Larsen Stevns produce this work with the purpose of exhibition or for its aesthetic value? I wonder what flowers held for him, or how botanical depiction could engage in this period’s socio-political movements? Curator: Considering Stevns’s engagement with the Open-Air School's naturalist philosophies and social art programs of the period, these studies reflect those pedagogical engagements, where he embraced democratic education via aesthetic depiction. It provided common ground. It reflects art's civic responsibilities and that of the artist's during the period. The way he noted "color with acid hints" evokes also this chemical dimension between representation and truth during modernism. Editor: Mmh. Seeing art embedded in such social currents gives another layer of engagement and the pencil color here achieves so much with minimal means. Those violet shadows have their say about art and nature as sites of democratic engagement. I would love to see these scribbled floral notes turned into their own artistic intervention, or a large colorful banner! Curator: It's inspiring to think of the artwork’s potential this way. It reminds us that Niels Larsen Stevns wasn't just studying flowers; he was using them as a tool to question assumptions during rapid change and ground that shift in social dialogue. Editor: Indeed. For me it serves as a delicate reminder of the artist's sensitivity, embedded within and amidst that transformative discourse.