Studies 1906 - 1945

Editor: Here we have "Studies" by Reijer Stolk, dating from between 1906 and 1945. It's a series of quick sketches, almost like snapshots, done in what looks like ink. I find the fragmented nature quite intriguing…like glimpsing thoughts on paper. What leaps out at you when you see it? Curator: You know, it feels almost like eavesdropping on the artist’s creative process, doesn’t it? Like flipping through a well-loved notebook where Stolk captured snippets of the world that caught his eye. The airplanes are particularly evocative for that period… think of the Wright brothers, the burgeoning age of flight captured in a few lines. Do they spark your imagination too? Editor: They definitely do. They make me think of technological progress, and even, given the time period, maybe the shadow of war. I wonder what he intended with the images of a person. Were they walking or posing? Curator: It's all suggestion, isn't it? The beauty of these sketches lies in their incompleteness. Like a half-remembered dream, we fill in the gaps ourselves. They lack detail, true, but what that really creates is an exercise of possibility! Are they related to each other? Do the planes meet the people? Were there specific locations that generated all these drawings? He gives us so little yet unlocks something in us, doesn't he? Editor: It does feel like we're participating in the artwork. I had just viewed them as different things next to each other. But I understand how these studies create different sensations to the observer through personal processing and context. Curator: Precisely! That's the magic of sketches—they invite us into the artist's mind and ignite our own creativity. What a marvelous set of invitations to fly, walk, imagine.