Schepping van Eva en verdrijving uit het paradijs 1963

Aat Verhoog made this etching, "Schepping van Eva en verdrijving uit het paradijs", with ink on paper. Look at how Verhoog created this. It's all about marks, lines. I can imagine him, his body leaning over the plate, scratching it this way and that, creating this dense, almost gothic, landscape. The scenes emerge out of the dark matter. There's the expulsion, of course, Adam and Eve being propelled by some unseen force. Then there is the suspended figure, and the floating hands. I can only guess at Verhoog's intentions, but to me, the drama of the creation story allows him to investigate this tension between figuration and abstraction. What does it mean to conjure the human form out of so much darkness? He's in conversation with Blake, Goya, all those artists grappling with the big stories, and pushing the boundaries of representation. And it’s also about the potential for art to convey complex narratives and emotional states through a visual language that transcends the literal.