'STOK' in gestileerde letters 1874 - 1945

This stylised sketch of the word 'STOK', made in pencil, is by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet. The letterforms are built from these confident marks and smudges, and you can sense the artist making immediate decisions, really feeling his way through the composition. Look how the heaviness of the 'S' coils into a delicate flick, contrasting with the strong horizontal of the 'T'. There’s such a tactile quality to the line work, a real sense of graphite on paper. The smudged areas around the central 'O' feel almost like erasures, areas where the artist has pushed and pulled at the material in an attempt to realise his vision. It reminds me of Man Ray's surrealist photography, which also plays with chance and the unpredictable effects of darkroom experimentation. Like Man Ray, Cachet uses an experimental approach to let new ideas take shape. It's as if the process of making is itself the subject.