Study for ‘Breath of Clay’ 1978

Giuseppe Penone’s ‘Study for Breath of Clay’ in 1994, looks like it was made with washes of sepia and umber pigment on paper. I wonder if he made the colours himself, grinding earth into the pigment, it feels like that sort of work… The form he has rendered is almost like a seed, or a body; the lines seem to suggest an anatomical study. The surface is quite thin and translucent, and the marks have this real feeling of searching in them. It reminds me of the drawings of Agnes Martin. I know Penone often works with sculpture, and I wonder if this is a plan for something bigger? Perhaps the artist made this drawing in preparation for constructing some larger piece? I can imagine he might have been thinking about the earth, about form, and how drawing can be a kind of breath. It definitely makes me want to see more!