Ved Den hellige grav 1933 - 1934

Curator: This compelling pen and ink drawing, titled "Ved Den hellige grav" – "At the Holy Grave" – was created by Niels Larsen Stevns between 1933 and 1934. Editor: It's immediately striking – an intense thicket of marks. I see frantic energy countered by rigid geometry, like conflicting forces. Curator: Precisely. The artist employs a grid overlaid with frenetic, almost chaotic lines, a duality which structures the visual experience, pushing us to seek deeper meanings within this tension. Note how the ink varies in depth, creating shadows. Editor: Yes, it begs the question of the materials at hand, and the means with which the artist is confronting the divine and translating what I imagine to be religious themes. Are we seeing a challenge to the formal traditions within his spiritual contemplation? What does the repetitive, almost obsessive mark-making imply about the labor, both artistic and spiritual, undertaken in its creation? Curator: That interplay between the medium and the message is particularly interesting here. The abstract approach rejects representational fidelity in favour of raw emotional truth. Look closely; hints of representational elements fight for dominance amid the hatching and cross-hatching. Editor: So we must consider Stevns as a material laborer: each individual pen stroke signifies repetitive actions, while at the same time hinting toward complex philosophical matters. A challenge is issued: Can the tools of simple artmaking and a strong artistic vision deliver complex thought? Curator: I think Larsen Stevns brilliantly succeeds in that challenge, making a sophisticated statement by manipulating very basic artmaking supplies. The rigorous construction coupled with emotive expression—an evocative example of his drawing practice, and something we are fortunate enough to house here at the Statens Museum for Kunst. Editor: For me, focusing on materiality illuminates Niels Larsen Stevns' methods and motivations, bridging abstract and symbolic dimensions. We get closer to the artistic act itself.