Deur naast een schoorsteenmantel 1919

Curator: Here we have Reijer Stolk’s “Door Beside a Mantelpiece,” rendered in ink on paper in 1919. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Stark. Almost unsettling, this skeletal depiction. It looks more like a diagram or stage set, a liminal space. Curator: Indeed. Note how Stolk uses quick, confident strokes to delineate the room. It appears the work was executed quickly, and in such the artist likely sought to document not the room’s likeness, but its basic components. You can almost imagine him considering questions such as, What is a door? What is a mantel? And from what are such things made? Editor: Precisely! And then he infuses meaning to it. A door, after all, isn't just a door. It represents possibility, entry, or even escape. Then we notice the objects on the mantelpiece. Vases, sculptures. A miniature still life holding meaning beyond mere utility. Curator: Look closely at the material depiction of the brick of the fireplace; a simple rectangular pattern. There’s something incredibly immediate and grounded about that level of reductive design. Editor: There's a sense of domesticity, however fractured, fighting for recognition here. These objects atop the mantle become silent witnesses of our internal and exterior worlds. The door, an entry, perhaps, into the psychological realms the artist conjures with these objects. Curator: It is true. While this appears to be a spontaneous sketch, we have to consider the social context. What domestic comforts were available in 1919? Was this a well to do domestic scene or aspirational documentation? Editor: We are, in the end, left pondering what such a space might mean. I would like to see what lay beyond that door, what possibilities that small choice opens. Curator: It shows how considering materials and creation affects our experience and perspective, which is the true value of this image.