Een familie achter een deken 1945 - 1947

This photograph, Een familie achter een deken, by Anefo, now at the Rijksmuseum, is a monochromatic slice of life. It's like a memory, faded and softened, but still holding onto a feeling. The blanket, with its horizontal stripes, creates a stage, a barrier, a world within a world. The faces peering over it have a beautiful clarity - and the darks of the stripes pull against those lights. I'm reminded of the paintings of someone like Vilhelm Hammershøi, who also had this way of using domestic interiors to convey a sense of intimate drama. Look at the way the blanket is suspended, slightly sagging in the middle. The drape and fall create an interesting tension with the children looking out at us. What does it mean to create a home, a shelter, together? Maybe artmaking, like childhood, is also about building that kind of space – a space for possibility, for play, and for seeing the world anew.