Schetsen van figuren 1876 - 1951

Theo Nieuwenhuis made this figure study with graphite on paper. There's something immediate about this drawing, like an idea caught in mid-air. Look at how Nieuwenhuis uses line: thin, scratchy, and searching. The figures emerge from a flurry of marks, barely tethered to the page. It's like he's feeling his way through the forms, letting the graphite lead the way. I love that kind of honesty in a drawing. You can almost see him thinking. Take the figure on the left: a solid dark mass with a simple hat, facing away. It has volume, but seems to blend with the figure next to it. Its like it is drawn in one breath. For me, this drawing shares something with the raw energy of early modernists like Kirchner or Heckel, who also embraced the unfinished, the provisional. The drawing feels like a starting point, an open question. And isn't that what art is all about?