Duinlandschap 2010

Dirck Nab made this landscape, in black ink on paper, from carved marks, somewhere, sometime. I just love these kinds of blocky landscape prints. I can imagine Nab, the artist, alone in his studio, wrestling with the wood or linoleum, the give and take of carving, the pressure and release. Look at the way the dark shapes of the land push up against the sky! The composition is so bold, so simple. It's not trying to be pretty, you know? There’s something really gutsy about it. These carved marks communicate a feeling, an intention, a meaning, that I recognize in the history of painting. It’s a conversation, artists talking to each other across time. And it's all held together by the stark contrast, the pure black and white. It’s almost confrontational in its directness, but then it invites you in to imagine the scene in your mind's eye.