Ontwerp voor een boekrug

This is Hans Borrebach's "Ontwerp voor een boekrug", a small pencil and ink sketch on paper. It looks like the kind of thing you do to figure something out, a notational space where the process is visible. There’s a set of vertical lines to the left, a vague grid, and some freeform writing, all sharing the same visual plane. It gives the impression of information struggling to be communicated. The textures in the piece are minimal, just the slight tooth of the paper and the varying pressure of the pencil. What Borrebach obscures, he also reveals. This piece reminds me a little of Cy Twombly’s work, with its combination of text and abstract marks. But where Twombly is expansive, Borrebach is compact, making this sketch such an intimate little world. Like all good art, it’s more about the questions it raises than the answers it provides.