GeorgeMinne

Comment

Comment by Dave Z on November 18, 2015 at 11:43pm

Thank you Resident Curator for your elegant appraisal of this sketch. It is indeed done of a Minne sculpture that was on display at the Getty. I frequently visit there to engage in conversation with my teachers, who despite being dead, have left messages in their works in what I call "The Infinite Salon." We join each other on the surface of their work and through an active study of the flow of the piece I find insights into how I imagine each of these transcendent artists solved for the light. These solutions I take into my own work to do my best to speak to those who come next.

Comment by Resident Curator on November 18, 2015 at 8:45pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

I’m uncertain if this figurative work was done as homage to the sculptor George Minne, or if in fact it more explicitly represents one of his works.  The pedestal base beneath the figure’s feet suggests the later, but the loose gestural handling in the piece animates what could otherwise be a static subject.  The taut quality of the body suffuses an elegant tension, or dynamic equilibrium; the diagonal “x” of the body’s frame stretches out to all available space within the picture.  The thin lines crossing along the top and sides accentuate the architectural nature of the environment, which is again echoed by a faintly rendered doorway in the distance.   This work is nevertheless an interesting contrast to the other drawings you’ve posted.  It omits all of the organic decoration and Art Nouveau sensibility to instead assert a robust and viscerally moving human body.