Coventry - photogenic places #1

Louis Kahn - exhibition - private view 8/7/2014

The precision of the line.. and the opinion of the eye 

Tonight at the Louis Kahn exhibition private view at London's a Design Museum I had a brief encounter directly with history and present time simultaneously. I questioned the precision in Kahn's developmental scheme sketches and as another visitor passed by I asked his opinion on this. We had a conversation and another man joins us, it turns out that the first man is an ex student of Kahn and the second a main US curator of the Kahn collection. We had an interesting chat about precision in development sketches. I think the pencil and colour drawings/sketches were surprisingly naive. To me, as it is with hand writing, a lot can be told from the way the line is drawn and then the affect this has on the overall composition and result. In Kahn's sketches I felt there was a lack of secure, strong decisions in the way the lines were drawn. I read hesitation and unsureness. Was he feeling the pressure to perform to a standard and/or style not quite his natural own? There were many 'woolly lines' and I would have preferred mistakes albeit strong quick lines to say 'this is my thoughts as they happen'. Even the greatest have weaknesses, I thought. But these things Are important to note with our X-ray eyes as we scan through the page or drawing we read.