Kalenderblad maart met tureluurs 1917

This calendar for March, featuring redshanks, was made by Theo van Hoytema, we think sometime around the turn of the 20th century. It's like a little theatre of marks, isn't it? The way the birds are drawn, with these scratchy, confident lines, it's not just about depicting them, it's about the *act* of depicting. Look closely, and you can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the paper. See those birds in flight at the top? They're not precious, not overly detailed. They're raw, immediate. Van Hoytema uses the starkness of the black ink to create a world that's both recognizable and dreamlike. The texture feels almost tactile. It reminds me of the work of later artists like Cy Twombly, who also embraced a kind of raw, unfiltered mark-making. There's no need to be fixed, or defined, it's like art is this ongoing conversation, an endless exchange of ideas across time.