In Straight and Non-Straight Lines, Marc Nagtzaam unfolds a field of rectangles and squares, meticulously built up in graphite to form a dense, meditative structure. What at first appears to be a uniform grid reveals, upon closer inspection, a layered landscape of subtle variations. Each area differs slightly in tone, in the direction of the hatching, in the pressure of the hand.
As the title suggests, the lines are both straight and not straight. They follow a system, yet never quite perfectly. The grid breathes, shifts, deviates. Within those minute irregularities, the artist’s presence becomes tangible — the hand that repeats, adjusts, condenses.
The drawing seems to divide itself into two zones: a lighter upper section and a darker, heavier lower field, as though the work were seeking its own centre of gravity. The graphite surface catches and reflects light unevenly, so that the drawing seems to move — opening and closing depending on where one stands.
A quiet tension emerges between order and deviation, between the strictness of the plan and the searching act of making. Straight and Non-Straight Lines becomes not merely a drawing, but a reflection on the act of drawing itself — on the persistent pursuit of precision within the limits of the hand.