Blank 1864 - 1941

Curator: This is "Blank," a drawing on paper by Niels Larsen Stevns, made sometime between 1864 and 1941. It's held here at the SMK, Statens Museum for Kunst. Editor: Oh, how curious! At first glance, it's profoundly… well, empty. It makes me wonder, is this intentional? Like a statement on creative block, or perhaps an invitation for us to fill the space ourselves? Curator: It’s a fascinating question. Niels Larsen Stevns, while remembered for more illustrative compositions, often returned to explorations of form and, yes, even emptiness as a subject. The sheet is not completely unmarked, mind you, it bears a sort of skin. One can see spots of discoloration that might be tiny accidents from studio. Editor: You're right, there's a beautiful warmth in that discoloration. Like a memory etched into the paper itself. It gives the work a soul, a quiet history. Is that darkness binding of the pages a shadow or a deliberate frame? Curator: I'd venture to say both. Consider the role of paper during Stevns' lifetime, cheap medium that was. A place to begin or to forget. By the texture visible where binding has created that line that edges in this view it’s both part of something we are allowed to not see in full while also emphasizing a limit. Editor: I love that tension between revelation and concealment. The frame makes the void feel less like an absence and more like a presence, like it's something we’re meant to sit with, ponder about… Maybe even fear. The boundaries! The book feels aged but never read. Curator: Indeed, or perhaps infinitely read. How might such an image challenge us to examine our own practices of meaning making, in contrast to the common impulse to find narratives readily supplied? Blank canvas in blank book - is a mirror staring back from an age well past. Editor: Ah, that’s it! I think Stevns asks, How many blanks can we really withstand to look into? Thanks, Niels. It gives us an opportunity for introspections by reminding us to seek beyond art's frame but to keep to paper or history itself for meaning making. Curator: A challenging invitation that might have us returning to seek the fullness that emptiness holds!