With an incomparable mastery of light, shadow, and form, Skip Steinworth (b. 1950) demonstrates in his latest graphite drawings that he is perhaps the finest draughtsman working as a fine artist today. Evoking the storied tradition of still life so richly explored before him by Dürer, Leonardo, Rembrandt, and other Old Masters, Steinworth transforms humble, everyday objects and elevates them to breathtaking paragons of elegance, grace, and finesse.

Through the deceptively simple medium of graphite, Steinworth captures the subtle mystery that envelops the seemingly mundane aspects of life and impressively conveys breathtaking still lives, this wondrous intimacy in gradations of black, gray, and white. Steinworth’s subject matter extends well beyond the historical trope of memento mori, replete with symbolic meditations on the passage of time, to include vitally contemporary and nearly photographic depictions of nature.

As in all of his work over the past forty years, Steinworth does not seek pictorial illusion but instead to grasp what Ingres called “inner form”.

His unparalleled attention to detail, as he purposefully makes each mark, renders his artwork itself a depiction of the suspension of time, where a viewer can enter into both the ephemeral and the eternal. Steinworth’s exhibition Master drawings, goes on view at LewAllen Galleries, December 27th and extends through February 8th, 2025.

The seemingly spare, yet graceful qualities of Steinworth’s imagery belie the fact that it often takes several months to create these complexly executed drawings, which consist of thousands upon thousands of carefully conceived and executed pencil strokes. His drawings are radiant and voluptuous, yet quietly unassuming with their subtle and nuanced imagery. Depicting contexts more often implied than defined, and objects that are frequently ephemeral, the works convey a surprising and pervasive sense of timelessness.

Steinworth demonstrates his great facility with form, light, shadow, and invention. There is a theatrical quality to his images that seems to imply an enigmatic story. The juxtaposition of the varied objects creates a sense of tension with each of the objects becoming like characters in a play.

Like the Dutch and French old masters before him, Steinworth pays careful, almost obsessive attention to arrangement, lighting, scale, and subject matter. Reviewer Bill Lasarow, of Art scene magazine, captured Steinworth’s artistic courage when he wrote, “The simple purity of pencil work... is gutsy for its rejection of bombast”. The works, while quiescent, attain a remarkable energy in their masterful composition, and evocation of light, space, and form.

Skip Steinworth’s work is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Minneapolis Art Institute, among other museums. Most recently, Steinworth was honored with a second solo exhibition at the Evansville Museum of Art: Stillness: drawings by Steinworth.