The Isley Brothers

I was listening to ‘Between the sheets’ by The Isley Brothers when I completed this one so I tried to capture the sensual feel of the song in my drawing. The curvy sheets invited me to render the body in in the same way. At some spots I let the body flow into the sheets, following the diagonal rhythym. Furthermore, I repeated this principle in a later graphite pencil drawing called ‘Roundism 16-03-20’. It creates embedment and unity with the negative space I think.

True Abstraction

I often tell my students true abstraction lies in imagining the impossible. Such boils down to making sound and essential choices out of an endless sea of possibilities. Without making them any art work becomes plane realistic and that is or should be no fun for anyone. One might say that those who find abstract art to be different from realistic art, do understand neither.

The Artist’s Task

Could it be that it is the task bestowed upon the artist to make the abstract believed by the spectator? I am getting more and more understanding of certain mechanisms. Basically, people do not just want to be confirmed in the reality they already know. Neither will they be attracted to an abstraction that lacks the power to communicate without elaborate explanations. The latter could be compared to advocating a love with many arguments. Either there is love or not at all. That is why I think the ‘make believe’ part a visual artist has to induce, works on different levels. Different in the sense of not focusing on realism or abstraction or any of these stylish descriptions. Hence, this drawing and I think someone catched my drift. I sold it quickly.

Click here to read about the sale of this art work to a private collector from the U.S.

Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Canson Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm) – A4 format)

Artist: Corné Akkers