3 figuren 1966

Aat Verhoog made this etching called '3 figuren'. I wonder when? And what year? You know, looking at those figures crowded together like that, I start thinking about the struggle of making a work like this. Each line feels so tentative, like Verhoog was feeling around in the dark, trying to find the right way to express these forms. I wonder, was he thinking about other artists while he was working? Maybe some of the old masters of drawing, or even some of his contemporaries who were pushing the boundaries of figuration. I’m thinking of those delicate lines and transparent shading—almost ghostly. It makes me think about how artists are always in conversation with each other across time, inspiring each other’s creativity. Painting, or in this case etching, is a form of embodied expression. Embracing ambiguity allows for multiple interpretations over fixed meanings.