Abklatsch van de krijttekening op pagina 2 1875 - 1934

This offset of a chalk drawing was made by Isaac Israels. Israels is playing with the accidental here, the way the chalk lifts off the page, creating a ghost of the original. It’s like a half-remembered dream, and it feels so contemporary in its casualness. The texture is key; you can almost feel the grain of the paper and the soft, crumbly quality of the chalk. Look at the way the lines break apart, the way the image seems to dissolve into the white ground. It’s like he’s inviting us to see the drawing not as a finished thing, but as a process, a fleeting moment. There is a smear to the left, it almost looks as though it has been smudged deliberately. This piece reminds me of Cy Twombly, in how he let’s gesture and accident become the image. For both artists it's less about what is depicted and more about the act of depiction. Art is an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time.