The Open Door 1945

Léon Spilliaert made this drawing of a figure by an open door with muted tones and a kind of anxious energy. I imagine Spilliaert, with his charcoal or crayon, building up these granular textures, almost like a nervous accumulation of marks. The composition feels so claustrophobic, doesn't it? The way the figure is pressed into that corner, facing a series of what could be doorways or just simple columns. I wonder if Spilliaert was thinking about the tradition of Romanticism and Symbolism. It reminds me of other artists who dealt with the darker side of the human condition. There’s this feeling of being trapped, of being in a psychological space that’s hard to escape. You see how those vertical lines create a sense of unease and confinement, and the open door, maybe it's a possibility of escape, or just another layer of uncertainty. It is an ongoing conversation, this painting thing. I love to see how artists like Spilliaert find their own language to express these feelings.