Tegning 1997

This is a drawing, named Tegning, by Jan Groth. Just by looking at this piece, you can tell that Groth’s process is all about mark making, with a stark black against white palette that screams immediacy. Looking closer, the charcoal, or maybe it’s graphite, is thick in some places and disappears into a delicate trace in others. The texture feels almost brittle, like the marks could crumble away if you touched them. My eye keeps getting drawn to the third row, there’s something about the way those lines split and fray that feels like a metaphor for… well, anything really. It reminds me a bit of Brice Marden’s drawings, in that they both use simple means to create complex and evocative images. It’s this ongoing conversation across time which interests me the most, where a piece embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations.