Gebouw te Löbtau 1876 - 1951

Theo Nieuwenhuis created this drawing of a building in Löbtau with graphite, a medium that invites a direct, process-oriented approach. You can almost feel his hand moving across the paper. There’s a tentative quality to the lines, especially around the roof and tower, as though the artist is mapping the building's essence rather than its precise form. It’s not about getting it ‘right’ in a photographic sense, but about finding a visual language for something experienced. I keep coming back to the marks suggesting the roof tiles, they're almost scribbled, a dense accumulation of tiny strokes that build up a surprisingly vivid sense of texture. I'm reminded of the architectural drawings of someone like Charles Burchfield, particularly in the way Nieuwenhuis embraces a certain kind of awkwardness. It's like they're both saying, let's not worry about perfection. Let’s just see what happens when we try to capture a building in a moment. Ultimately, art is not about answers, it’s about embracing the questions.