Kvinde ved klaver 1930

Christian Kongstad Petersen made this drawing of a woman at a piano in 1930, and the first thing I notice is the real sense of process in the marks. It’s just graphite on paper, but you can almost feel him searching for the form, not afraid to leave the evidence of his looking. Look at the area around the woman's head and shoulders. See how the lines are built up, repeated, almost vibrating? It's like Petersen is trying to capture not just her physical presence, but also the energy, the sound, the very atmosphere of the room. The dress is a flurry of hatched lines, which could be decorative or maybe he is just grappling with the fall of the fabric. The repeated use of lines, that aren't quite joined, remind me of the work of Giacometti, another artist who wasn't afraid to show the struggle of trying to fix an image to the world. Art is about asking questions more than giving answers.