Arken på Ararat 1924

Joakim Skovgaard made this drawing, Arken på Ararat, with ink on paper, but when I look at it I just think about process. It's all in the lines, right? The immediacy of the line, you can see the artist figuring it out as he goes. It’s not overworked. The ink is thin, almost watery in places, which gives the whole piece a feeling of lightness. And then there are these darker, heavier lines defining the edges of the cliff and the animals. It’s this push and pull between the delicate and the bold that really gets me. Look at the rainbow, those thin, careful arcs against the scratchy, energetic marks of the foliage. For me, it’s like Skovgaard is in conversation with himself, a little back and forth about what’s essential, what’s decorative, and how much is enough. It makes me think of Paula Modersohn-Becker, who also had this real directness, that sense of seeing the world without too much fuss. Art, like life, is a constant editing process.