Kop van een man 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this drawing called 'Head of a Man,' sometime before 1945, using pencil on paper. Looking at the sharp, searching lines, I can almost see Stolk’s hand moving across the page, trying to capture something elusive. It’s like he’s building the face out of thin air, one hatch mark at a time. You can see him figuring it out as he goes, deciding what to keep and what to leave out. I wonder what Stolk was thinking about as he made this piece. Was he trying to capture the man's likeness, or was he more interested in the play of light and shadow on his face? Maybe he was thinking about mortality, about how we’re all just fleeting images on the surface of the world. Anyway, it makes me want to pick up a pencil and start drawing myself.