Untitled 1987

This untitled drawing was created by Steve Keister in 1987, using graphite on paper. What I love here is the way these marks twist and turn, looping back on themselves in a kind of playful dance. I can feel Keister’s hand moving across the page, feeling the graphite crumble and spread, the pressure of the charcoal stick as it leaves its trace. I wonder what he was thinking about as he made these gestures. Was he trying to capture a feeling, a memory, or just the sheer joy of mark-making? The really dark lines next to the smudged shading are what create the tension, like Cy Twombly, but without the historical baggage. These kinds of drawings really show how much art comes from the body, not just the mind. And how one artist is always in conversation with others, riffing on each other's ideas, finding their own way to say something new.