Zonnebloem 1906 - 1946

Reijer Stolk made this lino-cut called ‘Zonnebloem’ and you can find it in the Rijksmuseum. Look at the dark gouges and lines of this print. You can almost imagine the artist digging into the surface with his tools. You know, sometimes I feel like painting is a kind of conversation with other artists. It is as if there are echoes of Van Gogh in the choice of subject. I wonder if Stolk felt that connection too. What was it like to be an artist in the Netherlands at that time? The texture is incredible – the prickly center of the sunflower and the leaves rendered in rough lines. There's something powerful in the contrast between the light and dark, and it feels almost like a force of nature, as if the sunflower is struggling to reach for the sun. You get a feeling of the artist's intention. It is very powerful and direct. It speaks to an idea of the artwork as a form of embodied expression.