Man op een steigerend paard 1918

Willem van Konijnenburg made this drawing of a man on a rearing horse with graphite or a similar material, and it’s all about the process. The lines are energetic, exploratory, like he’s thinking through the form right on the page. The texture is really interesting – you can see how the artist built up the image with layers of marks. Look at the horse’s hindquarters: those dense, scribbled lines give it weight and volume. The surface is alive with this kind of searching, and you feel the artist's hand moving across the paper. It's all line and tone; no color, and the restraint gives it this kind of brooding tension. It reminds me a little of some of Picasso’s early sketches, that same interest in reducing form to its most essential lines. Art is a conversation, right? We build on what came before, remixing ideas, and pushing boundaries.