Abklatsch van een krijttekening 1883 - 1922

This is an undated charcoal drawing by Johanna van de Kamer and it’s so beautiful, so quiet. It reminds me of the drawings of another painter I love, Myron Stout, who was also working through ideas of reduction and essence. Just imagine van de Kamer in her studio with her sticks of charcoal. She’s making marks, erasing them, adding more, pulling back and squinting. This is a drawing of a copy of a drawing, so it’s like a game of telephone. We are getting an image of an image of an image. She’s building up these soft gray tones, the marks kind of dissolve into the paper. Is it a landscape, or a still life? It could be anything, and that’s the point. These artists are in constant conversation with each other. It’s all one big flow of ideas, and we get to jump in and out whenever we want.