Steleformer 1864 - 1941

This sketchbook page with a drawing, Steleformer, was made by Niels Larsen Stevns. Look closely at the lightness of touch, the rapid, searching lines of graphite. It's like a visual diary entry, isn’t it? I imagine the artist quickly capturing an idea, a fleeting impression of a form. It’s all about the process, the act of thinking through drawing. What was Stevns searching for here? Maybe he was working out how to represent something monumental. The marks remind me of a kind of roughing-out, an attempt to give shape to something that is as yet unresolved. I recognize the feeling of this state of mind. The way you just keep going and going, marking up the page, hoping that something will come of it. You get a sense that the drawing isn't precious. It’s part of a journey, of experimentation. And, in the end, that’s what it’s all about: the journey, not the destination.