Portret van Paulina Jilistina Adriana Stolk-Wouters c. 1928

Editor: Here we have Reijer Stolk's "Portrait of Paulina Jilistina Adriana Stolk-Wouters," created around 1928. It's a woodcut, and the strong contrasts give it such a striking, almost severe, quality. What are your initial thoughts on this work? Curator: What I see is a conscious engagement with the means of production itself. The visible marks of the woodcut tool, the rough texture of the paper - these aren't meant to be hidden, but are integral to the artwork's statement. Think of the labor involved, the direct, physical engagement of the artist with the material. How does this process contribute to your understanding of the "severe" quality you mentioned? Editor: I suppose the process emphasizes the abstraction. You can see the marks where the artist cut away at the wood to make this portrait. It feels almost brutal and raw. I hadn't thought about the rough quality of the paper being intentional. Curator: Exactly! And consider the context. Around 1928, there's growing industrialization, a changing landscape of labor. How might this portrait engage with or even comment on those changes through its chosen medium and style? Is it celebrating or critiquing them? Editor: That's a really interesting point. It feels like the sharp, almost machine-like cuts used to create the image speak to the mechanization of society at the time, but the handmade nature of the print is almost resisting that, right? Curator: Precisely! The very act of creating this woodcut, a labor-intensive process in contrast to the rise of mass production, adds another layer of meaning. Editor: Thinking about it like that makes me appreciate the print's materiality. Thanks for opening my eyes to that! Curator: And for me, it highlights how the process is often just as important as the final image itself!