Shirt c. 1936

Melita Hofmann made this "Shirt" with what looks like graphite on paper, though without knowing the date it’s hard to know for sure. The piece shows a shirt in outline, and then a second one behind it, slightly out of focus. What I love about this is the way it embraces the diagrammatic, but with a super light touch. It's there, but it's not quite there, like a ghost of an idea. Look at how she uses the simplest of means: line and tone, and how she uses these to generate this idea of form and volume. She isn’t trying to trick us, but she’s certainly teasing us. It’s a reminder that drawing is never really about representation, but more about creating a space for thinking. I'm reminded of the drawings of fashion designers like Yves Saint Laurent; however, Hofmann’s lines are more delicate, more hesitant. We are left with a feeling of openness, a sense of something coming into being.