Binnen- en buitenkant van een heupbeen 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this drawing of the inside and outside of a hip bone with pencil on paper. It’s all about the attitude of the line, isn’t it? Look at how the shaded areas have this layered effect. It's like he's coaxing the form out of the page, not just describing it. I think Stolk is working something out in his mind, not just copying what he sees. The blue pencil shading adds a touch of mystery, like an x-ray vision into the form. There’s such an intense focus on the physicality of this bone, the way the light would hit it, the shadows it would cast. You can almost feel the weight of it. It reminds me a little of some of the anatomical studies by Leonardo da Vinci, or maybe even some of the more scientific drawings of Hilma af Klint. It is about taking something apart to understand it better. It's like they’re all part of this ongoing conversation about how we see and understand the world around us.