Maandblad Verf en Kunst van P.A. Regnault (ontwerp) before 1941

Curator: Here we have Leo Gestel’s “Maandblad Verf en Kunst van P.A. Regnault (ontwerp)”, a pencil drawing created before 1941. It is part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection. Editor: My initial feeling is a bit unsettled, actually. The lines are so frantic, like captured energy on the verge of exploding. I get a sense of incomplete thoughts, which kind of resonates with the theme. Curator: Interesting. It's true the quick lines contribute to an unfinished quality, yet those dynamic marks reveal something about modernist visual language—the liberation of the line, an immediate translation of vision. It captures a fleeting moment. Consider how modernism broke from the representational expectations of art. Editor: Yes, like breaking the mold before even forming it! Looking at the figures, they seem archetypal—like representations of work or progress, or perhaps muses in motion. The upward gestures, in particular, suggests aspiration. Curator: Perhaps, bearing in mind that “Verf en Kunst” translates to "Paint and Art," that the raised arm alludes to artistic creation, or the unveiling of truth and beauty in a broader cultural sense. Think of the raised arm, reaching toward an enlightened future or better state of artistic achievement. Editor: It's like the feeling of holding a really exciting, slightly dangerous idea for a painting in your mind. Curator: The lines appear very rudimentary; a form of visual shorthand, you might say. Yet there’s a timeless quality in the gestural style, reminiscent of Paleolithic cave paintings that represent archetypes, which suggests the artist has deeper insights to draw. Editor: It makes me think of channeling. I do wonder how consciously Gestel connected to any sense of artistic, cultural, and ancestral memory here, as he was composing his design, but somehow these pencil strokes seem both immediate and ancient at the same time. What do you make of the emptiness surrounding them? Curator: The void speaks to the infinite potential for creation and change and new beginnings. And that such freedom has often been understood to provoke a degree of fear as we face it. But this visual rawness suggests a beginning more than an ending. Editor: Looking closely at the gestural figures in this draft image, it's hard to avoid my mind wandering into uncharted, unknown territory as the art leaps forth with pure energy. Curator: It's easy to appreciate how, in just a few deft strokes, the essence of form and feeling is conveyed and inspires. Editor: Absolutely. A few strokes—and suddenly, we’re on an adventure!