Kauw 1883 - 1931

Curator: Before us is "Kauw," a drawing created with ink on paper by Johannes Frederik Engelbert ten Klooster sometime between 1883 and 1931. Editor: The bold ink strokes certainly command attention. It has this raw, immediate quality, almost like a fleeting observation captured on the page. A somber feeling. Curator: Indeed. Note the stark contrast between the solid blacks and the bare paper. The composition creates a sense of tension. Do you see how the negative space almost defines the figure as much as the ink itself? Editor: I do. The bird is stylized but something in the composition feels traditional, yet quite rebellious for folk art, more evocative of societal constraint when freedom and abundance should be evoked.. Was ten Klooster commenting on a loss of cultural practice through this stark lens? Curator: It is very thought provoking in what would otherwise be accepted. If we read the "folk art" as a representation of a community the brush strokes do look stifled as though the artist cannot freely use all the canvas as they would otherwise wish. It speaks of suppression, even control. But the form is still there and trying to push through. This tension is very key in the semiotic engagement. The signifier is folk art but the signified has all the trappings of its destruction. Editor: Thinking along the lines of artistic liberty and oppression of free and natural resources I think it offers that sense of quiet rebellion against a social status quo. Is there more to understand what other people in his art community were trying to invoke. Curator: His colleagues who practiced the same are indeed telling tales and this image will invoke discussion and that too has its social merits, if he meant that this ink will then "bleed" into others' ideas in discourse it would make it an act of expression. The "bleeding" nature of the brush strokes, the texture created is quite an achievement of conveying form and expression simultaneously. Editor: True, there's an energy in this piece that transcends the immediate image of a bird. It’s fascinating how an artwork, rendered so simply, can ignite conversations about artistic purpose. Curator: Exactly. Through the deliberate act of reduction, "Kauw" pushes us to explore the nuances between material and meaning.