Kerktoren 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this drawing of a church tower with pencil on paper; it’s a quick little study, a capturing of light, shape, and architectural form. The surface of the paper feels almost untouched, so pristine it’s as if the drawing just landed there. Vreedenburgh’s marks are tentative, light, like he’s feeling his way around the subject. See how the lines describing the tower aren't continuous but broken, almost like a series of dashes that suggest the form rather than define it? The whole thing has an airy quality, a sense of lightness and impermanence. It reminds me of those early sketches artists make, the kind that are all about seeing and understanding, more for themselves than for anyone else. You can see the ghost of a structure, light as a feather. It makes me think of Agnes Martin, another artist who could do so much with so little. Both find something monumental in the ephemeral.