the public lives of sketches...

the danish artist j.f. willumsens (1863-1958) was known mainly as a painter, although he also worked with ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and even designed his own house.

willumsens had a somewhat scientific and obsessive approach to studies, feeling the necessity to know every last detail of a composed painting in his head before he started the final work.

in his own words: "After all the preliminary work for a picture has been done, like compositions, sketches, studies, etc., and I think I know to the very last detail all that is necessary to complete the picture, I paint a draft version of it, usually in full size, from memory.

It is this draft version that I call the "dress rehearsal". From it I can see whether I am capable of painting the actual picture with the knowledge I have acquired from my studies, or whether more are needed. For it is my view that a painter has not mastered his subject unless he knows it by heart. One cannot at the same moment be an enquiring pupil and a knowledgeable master. I believe that I am the only artist who uses this procedure."

that willumsens was the only artist to use this procedure is debatable; but what is not open to discussion are the beauty of his preliminary color sketches. although these were never intended to be discussed as finished artworks in their own right, they would fit comfortably into the world of early abstract painting, even if this insertion was not part of willumsens' (nor anyone else's) plan. though never intended, the visual connections to abstract painting history - from paul serusier to alfred jensen - are certainly there. of course, it's somewhat presumptuous on my part to read the sketches of someone as obsessed with finished work as willumsens as something more - but when i discovered these images, they killed me!

i've recently been thinking a lot about the idea of sketches and how much an artist might or might not be able to control their eventual entry into the world. an upcoming release of some of nick drake's home recordings is a mix of both good and bad. some of it is unbelievably powerful and all of it is undeniably private (i've heard the whole thing... most of this stuff has existed for ages on various bootlegs, and this new release is already circulating on the web). drake was extremely shy, as well as a very very careful composer and songwriter; and i can't help but think he would be painfully uncomfortable with the idea that these "dress rehearsals" or, worse, these preliminary "color sketches" are being released as a record. on the other hand, there is no denying that these recordings do more than simply shed light on process. there is some seriously raw mind numbing beauty here of course.

perhaps an artist has to be resigned to the fact that when such things are brought to light; they will most likely be co-opted by a viewer/listener to fulfill expectations and purposes never intended by the artist (similar to the trajectory of most artworks). for better or worse, drake and willumsens sketches have no choice but to allow us to make them our own... to find transcendence in things, that perhaps, were never supposed to contain quite so much power.