Drawing No. 5 1972

This is Keith Martin's "Drawing No. 5," made sometime in 1972. It's a drawing, so it's all about the line, and how the artist coaxes form from the flat surface. The shapes are so strange, almost like geological formations or maybe some weird, undiscovered sea creatures. I find myself wondering how much planning went into this. The lines create a sense of depth, and the shading gives volume to these bizarre forms, but it's also kind of flat, like a collage. There’s this one area, towards the right, that looks almost like a stack of pancakes, all wobbly and soft, with a bit of lace trim! It’s so unexpected, like a tiny detail from a completely different world crashed into this alien landscape. You see the splatters and smudges, the imperfections that make it feel so alive. I see echoes of artists like Dove or Hartley, folks who were trying to find a new language for seeing the world. Art isn’t about answers, it’s about the questions we ask along the way.