Market, Spain by François Krige

Spain captivated Krige. When the artist joined his brother Uys there in 1934, the poet plunged him into the Iberian way of life, infecting him with a love of things Spanish. At this time, François was training his eye and hand to respond almost instinctively to the subject matter. The learning curve during his period in Spain was steep. He progressed from a sketching style that relied on imprecise shading and the retouching of lines to a self-assured, delicate and autonomous line that conveyed more through its asceticism. The poet Breyten Breytenbach writes of Krige’s Spanish drawings: ‘I was … attracted by the impossible romanti­cism of this draughtsman (I knew nothing of his paintings then) moving a penetrating eye and a deft hand over faraway exotic places. Who wouldn’t have been captured by the traveller and the explorer?’ – Justin Fox, 2013