Walk's mechanical precision belies the expressive and layered process behind its creation. Inspired by the idea of the doodle and artist Paul Klee notion of “taking the line for a walk,” Arturo Herrera wanted to bring the concept of an artist’s idle hand wandering on paper to life in the digital realm. Prior to the creation of this sculptural piece, he made a series of video drawings (also called Walk) based on digitized versions of his ink sketches. These then appeared on a bank of nine flat-screen monitors behind the ticket desk in the lobby of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. The version presented here is even farther removed from the immediate, carefree nature of a doodle. By executing his designs in steel and mounting them on a wall, Herrera creates a more formal presentation of his idea, but one that still maintains a sense of whimsy and immediacy through its fragmented, gestural imagery.

Label from Arturo Herrera: Little Bits of Modernism, December 12, 2014–April 5, 2015