Iron Gate and Fence c. 1936

Arelia Arbo made this drawing of an iron gate and fence, sometime between 1870 and 1940, with graphite and watercolour. It’s precise, technical even. The way the gray watercolor washes sit beneath the lines of the fence, almost like a ghostly underpainting, is really beautiful. There's a fragility, a deliberate imperfection that seeps through the rigid structure. Look at how the artist uses the graphite, at the top of the fence, to describe the light glinting off the metal. The cross on top of the gate seems to be reaching towards the sky, a delicate and hopeful gesture rendered with such care. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the paper, carefully charting each line, each curve, each shadow. It reminds me of Agnes Martin's grids, which on the surface appear repetitive, but on closer looking are full of the artist’s touch. Art, I think, is always about the conversation between control and chance, and the tension that arises when we try to capture the world on paper.