Zelfportret (afgesneden) c. 1944 - 1990

Curator: Welcome. Before us is "Self-Portrait (Cut Off)" by Kees Stoop, a print executed sometime between 1944 and 1990. Notice the etching and graphite work. Editor: My first impression is one of fragmented observation, like peering at a landscape through a shattered lens. Curator: The fragmented view might also stem from the conscious material choices. The rough texture of the etching process itself conveys a kind of fractured reality, doesn't it? The lines, etched with such precision, offer both detail and a sense of disintegration simultaneously. How do you read that single, isolated eye? Editor: The eye, magnified by glasses, becomes a powerful symbol of vision, or perhaps the act of seeing itself. The placement – almost emerging from the foliage – makes me think of concealed observation. But I see a sort of haunting and intense watchfulness. Do you get a sense of introspection there? Curator: Certainly. And given that it's a self-portrait, this visual fragmentation might reflect the artist’s internal state, his own process of self-assessment through the means of printmaking. The act of etching—of impressing this image onto a plate and then transferring it to paper—implies a laborious engagement with self-representation. Editor: Exactly. The rooftop beneath the eye, almost a protective barrier. I’m interested in the layering here; is the natural world encroaching on the domestic sphere, or is the eye itself rooted in that landscape? And what does the suggestion of 'cut off' communicate symbolically, if there is the feeling of being rootless or isolated? Curator: It makes you wonder. What does the mechanical reproduction of etching lend to Stoop’s vision, in conjunction with graphite elements, given this internal perspective? It presents itself almost as a palimpsest of processes. Editor: An unusual self-portrait to ponder. The combination of direct gaze and obscured surroundings certainly creates an intriguing sense of psychological depth. Curator: A great synthesis between artistic construction and the depths of vision and material.