Circuspaarden en figuren 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing of circus horses and figures with pencil and charcoal. It’s a jumble of bodies and lines, a bit like my studio floor after I’ve been working on a piece. I can almost feel Gestel’s hand moving across the page, trying to capture the energy and movement of the circus. There’s a real push and pull between representation and abstraction, a kind of dance between what he sees and what he feels. I see him working fast, urgently, and intensely to capture that feeling. The charcoal must have been soft and yielding in his hand. These horses remind me of Franz Marc’s animals; they too are trying to capture that sense of dynamism and movement. Artists are always looking at each other’s work across time, responding to what’s been done before, and pushing it in new directions. That’s how art evolves, through dialogue, through exchange, through the messy process of making.