Lijst met namen 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this List of Names, we don’t know when, probably using pen or pencil on paper. The marks are slight, tentative, with layers of crossed out marks. I love the purple ink dot above ‘Merhottein’, it’s an addition that feels intimate and playful. The texture of the paper is visible, a warm ivory, and the soft grey of the writing contrasts with the crisp white page. It’s so immediate! You can almost hear the scratch of the pencil. The names are clearly important to the artist, but the meaning is obscured. Is it a record of people he knew? Those he was trying to remember? The ‘x’ symbols make me think of keeping score, ticking off some kind of ritual. Like Cy Twombly’s scrawls, these marks have the potential to mean everything and nothing. It's up to us. Is this art? Yes! Because it makes me think.