Vissersvrouwen op de kaai 1910

Léon Spilliaert made 'Vissersvrouwen op de kaai' with gouache and ink, and right away you can feel the starkness in the scene. It's all about process. The texture is flat and the colors are subdued, but the shapes are bold. The women are looming on top of that wall, rendered with quick, almost careless strokes, and it’s the physicality of the medium that really grabs you. See the way the gray brick wall takes up the majority of the picture plane? It’s funny, I can almost feel the artist’s hand moving, making quick marks and lines. I think Spilliaert understood that the real art is the conversation, where one person throws something into the ring and another one picks it up, plays with it, and throws it back, or to someone else.