Twee acrobaten, mogelijk op het podium 1875 - 1934

Curator: Here we have a drawing by Isaac Israels, "Two Acrobats, possibly on stage," created sometime between 1875 and 1934. It’s a pencil sketch currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Wow, it’s so immediate, isn't it? Feels like a captured moment. There’s a raw, energetic quality in those pencil lines—almost frantic, like he’s racing against time. It’s sketchy, very minimal. It also exudes so much energy, one can sense their balance in motion and the focus it demands. Curator: Israels often focused on capturing modern life, and the circus or theater were prime subjects. The choice of pencil, the speed of the sketch – these speak to a specific means of production tied to the Impressionist desire to render fleeting impressions. It reduces art to observation and manual skill. Editor: Absolutely, and the materiality too! The smudge of the pencil feels very 'now', immediate... You know, when you’re little and you get caught doodling in class, but the doodles turn out magnificent? It kind of gives off that same sense of wonder. I like the unfinished suggestion it embodies. I like that it also invites me to complete the image mentally with colors, sounds, smells of a performance in real-time, don’t you think? Curator: The immediacy suggests a democratization of art itself; the sketch privileges process over a polished product. Consider the societal fascination with the spectacle of acrobatics. Its cultural position is inherently connected to displays of skill, labor, and even risk and entertainment for consumption. Editor: The acrobatics element adds a frisson. Are they supporting each other, physically and metaphorically? I almost feel my stomach tightening, thinking of the pressure on the person underneath. Also the freedom. The possibility that, for the acrobats, normal boundaries don’t matter. Gravity is negotiable for them! Curator: Perhaps the most potent element is that it is a draft, a quick drawing where manual skills of observation meet a production line in an instant to serve popular demands. These two qualities can also come across as limitations, or not necessarily. Editor: It leaves us pondering our ideas of progress versus remaining with what serves us in the simplest ways. And those kinds of decisions require an understanding of where we situate ourselves to proceed ahead!