Portretten van twee Afrikanen c. 1916 - 1945

Reijer Stolk sketched these portraits with pencil; a light touch, a kind of intimate, quiet seeing. I can imagine Stolk, in front of his subjects, rapidly trying to capture not just their likeness, but also something of their inner presence. See how the lines of the faces are tentative, searching, as if he's feeling his way around their features? The tilted head, the downturned mouth. I really respond to the immediacy here. It feels like he’s thinking through the act of drawing. He's trying to find a form. It's about trying to communicate something beyond the surface, which is what I think a lot of artists are doing. We are constantly in dialogue with other artists, across time and place, learning from each other, riffing off each other's ideas, and pushing the boundaries of what art can be. I find that so beautiful.