Vijf mannen op een rij bij de voeten van een reus c. 1936 - 1940

Henk Henriët made this drawing – Vijf mannen op een rij bij de voeten van een reus – with graphite on paper. I can see him there, hunched over the paper, hatching away, smudging, going back and forth to conjure this surreal scene. I’m drawn to the scale play and the way the artist uses the blankness of the page to suggest space, or maybe the lack of it. What was Henriët thinking when he made this? Maybe he felt like that tiny figure standing in the giant’s hand, dwarfed by something massive and incomprehensible. I feel that way sometimes, like the world is this huge, overwhelming thing, and I’m just trying to find my footing. And then there's the row of men waiting, maybe for their turn to be held in the giant’s palm. Or maybe they are simply waiting. It reminds me of the way artists line up in the history of art, each taking our turn at the same subjects. Each person brings something a little different. It's an ongoing conversation, full of echoes and whispers across time.