Arm, armspieren en een staande man met opgeheven armen 1906 - 1945

Editor: So, this is "Arm, armspieren en een staande man met opgeheven armen" – which translates to "Arm, arm muscles and a standing man with raised arms." It's an ink and pencil drawing dating sometime between 1906 and 1945, housed at the Rijksmuseum. It feels like looking at a page torn straight out of someone's sketchbook. The lines are so immediate and raw. What do you see in it? Curator: Immediate, raw… precisely! It’s like stumbling upon the artist's very thought process, isn’t it? To me, it's less about finished forms and more about potential energy. See how the single, standing figure is repeated, dissected, almost like the artist is experimenting with movement and force. It's abstraction at its most thrilling. What does the arm reaching upwards suggest to you? Is it reaching for something, or pushing away? Editor: I see both! Reaching and pushing. It makes me think about struggle and aspiration. There's something really human in that tentative, searching quality. I wonder if the artist was deliberately trying to capture that ambiguity. Curator: Precisely! Perhaps the beauty lies not in answers, but in the very act of questioning. Art should be less of an ending, more of a beginning! What do *you* feel looking at it? Does the loose quality frustrate you or excite you? Editor: It definitely excites me! It's like a permission slip to experiment with my own work. Like, it doesn't always have to be perfect. It can be about exploration too! Curator: Ah, exactly! Perhaps this artist hoped someone would connect to it and receive a boost of imaginative energy and momentum. Now you go, try creating a new work, building upon their initial creative intention! Editor: That’s a really cool thought. I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thanks!