Details
The image
A hand and a stone drawn with a single continuous line, the fingers open, the stone held between them, the background left entirely blank. The drawing is quick and the line is confident, so the picture works at a distance as a shape and up close as a gesture.
Where it comes from
Main et silex is a drawing by Le Corbusier and it belongs to a habit he kept for decades: the sketch as a public argument rather than a private note. A hand holding a stone said more about proportion and touch than any photograph of a finished building and he published drawings like this one as confidently as he published plans. Architects of the modern period drew constantly and the best of that work reads as an essay on measure rather than as a study for a building.
On the wall
It suits a study, an office or a hallway, where a drawn gesture can hold a wall without weight. Because the composition is open and the line is the subject, it needs plain surroundings and decent light. In a group it should be the most restrained piece.
In company
Printing of this period is what the Geometric collection is made of.Avoid hanging it beside dense illustration, the line needs silence.
