Løse rids 1900 - 1905

Curator: This is a drawing called "Løse rids" by Niels Larsen Stevns, created sometime between 1900 and 1905. It's currently held here at the SMK, the Statens Museum for Kunst. Editor: It feels like peering into the artist's mind. Just these quick, almost fleeting, shapes sketched on paper. A bit dreamy, wouldn't you say? Curator: Precisely. Look at the raw materials—pencil and paper—elevated to something evocative. The repetitive lines and form hint at a preoccupation. What process was he exploring? Was this simply preliminary work for other artwork? It also emphasizes a kind of manual, physical production – sketching. Editor: It’s loose, isn't it? Hence the title! Almost like visual notes scribbled in the margins of a more significant thought. Reminds me of looking up at clouds, trying to find familiar forms in abstraction. There’s a bird there, or perhaps the ghost of one? Curator: Interesting you pick up on that possible figuration, as this drawing moves away from pure representation toward an abstraction, suggesting a link with early modernist explorations into subjective vision. The paper itself, with its age and lined pages, acts as a physical document of Stevns' process, hinting toward his wider engagement with labor. Editor: Thinking about the labor and its product reminds me of trying to grab hold of an elusive idea. Each line is an attempt, a searching. The finished, messy-but-beautiful product, is a bit like capturing smoke with your bare hands, you know? The emotional rawness feels intentional and immediate, so…human. Curator: This piece urges us to value the immediacy of artistic labour, not just its result. It brings attention to the social value of work as practice and highlights the context behind its art production Editor: Ultimately it makes me happy, those quiet moments captured by the artist between bigger projects, is a welcome opportunity for playful interpretation on our part. Curator: It certainly demonstrates how even the simplest sketches reveal volumes about an artist's mind and times.