Løse rids 1879 - 1910

Curator: Here we have Oluf Hartmann's "Løse rids," created sometime between 1879 and 1910, currently housed here at the SMK. It's a graphite drawing. What jumps out at you? Editor: It feels like a whispered conversation, a collection of fleeting thoughts caught on paper. The lightness of the graphite gives it a delicate, almost ephemeral quality. Curator: Hartmann's sketches often carry that sense of impermanence, don’t they? I think he was trying to capture impressions more than concrete realities. Look at how the figures are just suggested, barely there, as if on the verge of vanishing. It’s fascinating how such sparse marks can evoke a feeling of intimacy. But how does graphite contribute? Editor: Well, think about the accessibility of graphite, especially then. It was an everyday material, cheap and readily available. These aren't grand pronouncements made in oil; it's workaday mark-making—reminiscent of laborers' notations or accounting ledgers. Curator: That’s a compelling contrast to the intimacy that these sketches conjure for me. Seeing it in that perspective actually adds a whole other dimension, suggesting even a surreptitious kind of recording. Do you get a sense of narrative here, though? Editor: Not really. It feels more like preparatory explorations, trying to work out form and composition. I am really stuck by how they are more notes than polished vignettes, hinting that labor preceded formal execution. What kind of narratives or settings does it evoke for you? Curator: Hmm, now that you've primed me to consider it through material analysis, I can't shake the notion of the artist's studio, of countless failed and discarded attempts, a quiet labor that makes the seeming etherealness and personal emotion possible. Maybe those sketches do represent very solid labor and time, instead of some fleeting emotions! Editor: Right! I mean, that interplay, where perceived ease is belied by the toil to produce that work, makes it much more complex for me. What did you get most from it, personally? Curator: This really gave me permission to enjoy the raw sketches, something incomplete and open-ended! Editor: Exactly! Now, when I consider this, I'll definitely approach works with accessibility, intention, labor, and the meaning behind the choice of medium.