Drawing and MovementThe encounter of the line and the white plane, that is drawing for Maria van Elk in all its simplicity. In this edition she makes intuitive ramblings through space and captures the chosen course in colourful hand drawn lines on a white sheet. The feeling of the space is very self-controlled: no erratic errant lines: the act on paper takes place in a strict geometrical language. The image is determined by the different directions of the continuous line and is thereafter “focused” with pencil lines, that fixate the drawing using a ruler a graduated-arc or household attributes such as a plate, a string and a tray. The 14 drawings in this sketchbook are 14 choices from countless quests on paper. Which motives did Van Elk use for her choices ? How intuitive her act may be, there is no way of an unfocused search, but more of a receptiveness for the unexpected. Her drawings are reflections of the not expected and not repeated moments, upon which the cogwheels of self-evidence stop for just a moment caused by a sudden deviation. Like the minimal-music-wall in Changing Parts (1968) of Phillip Glass menaces to collapse at the sudden change of pitch and like Anne Teresa De Keersmaecker confuses the pattern of her choreography by a sudden intermediate movement. What matters to Van Elk is to catch the apparently minimal changes within the grey monotony of existence and accentuate them with colour and thereafter to underline them literally. Drawing of movement just get a concentrated attention in the lithograph technique. Elbrig de Groot |
Sketchbook with 15 drawings 13/15
dimensions | 36½ x 45½ cm
drawings Maria van Elk | print lithographs Rento Brattinga, Steendrukkerij Amsterdam NL
introductory text | Elbrig de Groot
self-published in an edition of 15
collection | Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam NL
click here to see the sketchbook full screen
Maria van Elk at work with lithographs for Sketchbook in Steendrukkerij Amsterdam NL (1988)photo Ferry André de la Porte | collection Rijksmuseum Amsterdam NL
photo Ferry André de la Porte | collection Rijksmuseum Amsterdam NL
Without Title (1988)Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam NL |
