Tabel 1890 - 1946

This work is a page of calculations in pen, made by Cornelis Vreedenburgh. The marks are not paint, but the same principles apply. Look at how the numbers are arranged in columns, how the lines are drawn and redrawn, not perfectly straight. It's a process. The texture of the paper, stained and worn, speaks to time passing, the materiality of the everyday. The penmanship, hurried and practical, contrasts with the considered way we might expect an artwork to be made. Notice the blotches and corrections, the way the ink bleeds into the paper. See how the numbers vary in size and pressure, some darker and bolder, others light and tentative. The relationship with Cy Twombly is clear, I think, in the focus on the gesture and the moment of the mark, like a dance. There's beauty in this, a visual poetry born from the mundane. Art is everywhere, right?