Portrait of Zersen 

Editor: This is Carl Hoff's pencil drawing, "Portrait of Zersen." There's an intimate quality to the work. It's mostly lines and curves; what jumps out is that strange hat. What do you see in this piece from a formalist perspective? Curator: Indeed. It’s intriguing how Hoff renders form with such economy. Notice how line weight dictates depth. The variations are quite subtle. Are you observing how he suggests volume through hatching? Editor: Yes! The shading around the eye socket, and the ear especially. But is that asymmetry deliberate? The subject's head seems slightly tilted. Curator: The slight tilt and off-center hat introduce a dynamic tension. Semiotically, the hat suggests a certain social standing, yet its skewed angle perhaps disrupts that reading, suggesting the sitter as a character out of balance, no? What do you make of the empty space around the figure? Editor: It's interesting, the blank space almost isolates the portrait. Without any background, our entire focus is driven toward the contours of the figure. Curator: Precisely. Stripped of context, we’re forced to grapple with the relationships between line, form, and expression. Hoff presents not a person but a network of graphic articulations which provoke a particular viewing experience, what do you make of it? Editor: This exercise reveals much about how artists can use line alone to not only suggest shape but communicate a narrative of position, character, even a whole story! It has provided some deeper appreciation for simple art forms. Curator: Agreed. Paying close attention to formal structures reveals hidden depths within the ostensibly simple.