Egelhoeder c. 1950 - 1971

Dirkje Kuik made this print called Egelhoeder with etching, aquatint, and soft ground. Look at the hatching marks everywhere, those wiry, nervous lines that describe the figure and the hat. I can imagine Kuik drawing into the plate with a drypoint needle, maybe even using a magnifying glass, so focused on the details. I sympathize with the artist: there is something difficult about the image that is also very determined, and the more you look the more strange it becomes. What did she think while making this? Was she just trying to describe the hat? I love the mark-making and the textures, which feel bodily to me. I see her hand in it. Artists are always in conversation, pushing at the boundaries of expression. Each brushstroke, each line, is a question, a proposition, a reaching out. And even with the answers we get, uncertainty still has the last word. It's never really solved.