Leyli 1966

Sattar Bahlulzade made this drawing, Leyli, with ink on paper sometime in the 20th century. The lines are confident and immediate, aren't they? A really simple vocabulary of marks describing the figure of a woman. It’s all about the surface here, the way the ink sits on the page. There's a real contrast between the density of the dark ink and the ground of the paper. The lines have a graphic quality; you can almost feel the nib of the pen scratching across the surface. The blank parts of the paper become as important as the lines themselves, creating a kind of push and pull. See how the lines describing the veil around her face seem to radiate outwards? They are full of energy! Bahlulzade’s work reminds me a bit of Matisse’s line drawings, that same sense of capturing a form with incredible efficiency. Both artists really embrace the power of suggestion, inviting us to fill in the gaps. In the end, art is all about possibility, not answers.