Udsigt over bastionerne på Christiansø 1920 - 1921

This is Karl Isakson’s sketch, ‘Udsigt over bastionerne på Christiansø’ made with pencil on paper. The speedy marks feel like a jolt of energy, a rapid-fire response to the landscape. Look at how the lines dance and weave together to form the bastion, it’s all about the push and pull of the graphite. The surface is raw, immediate. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page, a flurry of quick decisions. The lines are transparent and light in some areas, thick and almost opaque in others; the landscape is built up from a collection of small, almost nervous marks. The whole thing has a provisional feel, like a thought caught in mid-air. The way Isakson uses line reminds me of Giacometti, that same searching, restless quality, the sense of a form always just out of reach. Ultimately, it's that very ambiguity that makes this drawing so compelling.