Stående model 1914 - 1915

Karl Isakson made this drawing, Stående model, with pencil on paper. You can see the lines were put down quickly, kind of like a dance, feeling out the form. Look at how Isakson uses the simplest means to suggest volume and weight. There's a kind of elegance in how the fewest possible lines create a human presence. Take the figure's right arm, for instance, holding onto the garment. It's just a few marks, but they convey so much. The physical act of drawing—the pressure of the pencil, the speed of the hand—all contribute to the image's feeling. Isakson was part of a generation who looked at Cezanne, at Matisse. There's a sensitivity to his process which reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker. Both sought a form of expression that was both modern and deeply personal. There's a quiet, but assured, confidence to this drawing that allows it to hold its own. It shows the possibilities of art as a language that always finds something new to say.