Oiseaux 1980

Curator: Here we have "Oiseaux" from 1980, a screenprint by Harrie A. Gerritz, now residing here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Well, my first impression is tranquility. It's so minimal, a sliver of sky and earth encased in these calming blues and greens. There's something almost meditative about it. Curator: Absolutely. Gerritz was deeply invested in the craft of printmaking, particularly screen printing. Note how he uses those flat blocks of color, layering them with precision to build up the image. It's an abstraction, yes, but still very grounded in the physical process of its creation. Editor: It does make me wonder, what paper did Gerritz chose and how did he find this shade of green? It's that pale gradient. And what's your reading of these simple forms? The little bird shapes feel more like emblems, telegraphing some larger narrative or some hidden symbol. Curator: Yes, those "oiseaux", those birds, seem to hover, almost uncertain. He was working during a time of increasing industrialization, when artists were turning toward natural imagery as refuge. Here, he seems to be capturing a longing for something simpler, an echo of nature lost to the noise of modern life. He plays with how this landscape fits together to show how our current reality might need that longing to give itself hope. Editor: Interesting point. When you think of abstraction, so much about it has turned to being "above" reality and not actually reflecting upon materiality or daily life itself. And that, again, begs questions about production. How do Gerritz's methods connect to what's available within screen printing that isn't there with something more gestural like painting, and how would that affect our interpretation of what "hope" or nature can be when represented in flat space? Curator: Perhaps Gerritz uses the medium to communicate nature itself with "less" reality? The artwork becomes this distillation of natural forms. The rigid boundaries, in their mechanical reproducibility, challenge the "free" natural state, too. Editor: So we go from the concrete to the…philosophical! From labor, materiality, process, and the artist's intent, and it reveals its message in each shape and the production's nature. Curator: Indeed. A small, simple print, yet full of these deeper conversations about how we see, make, and ultimately value our world. Editor: The questions a piece like this provokes, both on process and reception, prove just how "finished" this piece really is!