Drawing 1954

Frederick Sommer made this drawing with pencil and crayon on paper. Imagine him there in the studio, charcoal dust under his nails, as he coaxes these lines to life. The figure emerges from a dark background, a flurry of white, yellow, and red lines sketching out the contours of the form, like an afterimage burned onto the retina. Is it a figure playing an instrument? A dancer caught mid-step? What did he see? What did he want us to see? I love the way the lines trail off, unfinished, inviting us to complete the picture, to fill in the blanks with our own imagination. Sommer's been in conversation with other artists across time, riffing off ideas, complicating things, and responding in real time to the gestures of those who came before. It's all connected, you know? We are all in conversation with each other.