Black Family 1989

Anton Heyboer made this work, called Black Family, with paint and ink on paper. The black ink is slapped and dragged across the surface, a dark, viscous pool, contrasted with the blood-orange figures sketched on top. It's like a raw nerve laid bare, the drawing scratchy and urgent. Heyboer wasn’t interested in hiding his process; the energy of creation is right there on the surface. Look at the little figure crouched at the bottom. Is it a child? An ancestor? The marks are so loose, so intuitive. It feels like a direct connection to some primal urge to make images, almost like cave painting. Heyboer reminds me of Guston, especially in his later works. Both artists grapple with the messiness of being human, with all its contradictions and imperfections. Both show us that art doesn't have to be pretty to be powerful.