Blank 1864 - 1941

Editor: We are looking at "Blank," a drawing by Niels Larsen Stevns made sometime between 1864 and 1941. It’s made with colored pencil on paper. What I notice right away is the sort of worn, aged look of the paper, and the strong contrast between the blank pages and the book's dark binding. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Seeing this seemingly empty book elicits powerful questions for me. During Stevns' lifetime, spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the very notion of the "blank page" became fraught with social and political implications. Who has the privilege to write, to create, to fill that space? Think about the struggles for literacy, for access to education, particularly for marginalized communities. Editor: That’s a great point! It immediately turns this simple blank book into a potent symbol. Curator: Exactly. And notice how the very material – the paper itself – bears witness to time, to use, or perhaps even censorship. What stories might have been intentionally left untold or erased within those pages? Whose voices are absent, and why? Editor: It does invite a sense of mystery. And perhaps sadness too, knowing how many stories have been suppressed throughout history. Do you see parallels with contemporary struggles for freedom of expression? Curator: Absolutely. We can reflect on ongoing challenges regarding access to information, to free speech, to artistic expression around the world. And how digital platforms now also have the power to censor and control narratives. This "blank" book then is anything but empty – it's overflowing with unfulfilled potential, with lost narratives, and, hopefully, with possibilities for future creation. Editor: It’s been eye-opening to consider what seems at first so simple and blank in terms of its larger socio-political meaning! Thanks. Curator: My pleasure. Art invites questions rather than simply providing answers. Keep asking those questions.