Hoofden van Ghanezen c. 1916 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this drawing, 'Hoofden van Ghanezen' with a pencil on paper. I imagine Stolk in Accra, rapidly sketching, trying to catch a likeness, a fleeting expression. You know, the way the light changes everything, and how quickly a feeling can pass across someone’s face. Look at these light, searching lines, full of erasures and corrections. He’s clearly thinking through looking. I feel his concentration, his hand moving swiftly, trying to record what he sees. There's an immediacy here, a sense of being present in the moment. The mouths are all open in speech or laughter. The faces seem to be caught in mid-conversation, and the artist wants to catch them in motion. It makes me think of other artists who’ve been drawn to portraiture – Alice Neel, maybe, or Marlene Dumas. They all share that ability to capture something essential, something deeply human, in the faces they depict. Each artist, each drawing, is part of an ongoing conversation about how we see ourselves and each other.