Three Horses c. 1925 - 1930

Leo Gestel made this drawing of Three Horses on paper, and what strikes me first is how little is there – the drawing is all line and shape. Imagine him, maybe, taking a brush loaded with ink, and letting it dance across the page, each stroke sure and deliberate. The black ink is thin. The lines create the bodies of the horses, one almost on top of the other, with these quick, calligraphic marks filling in the negative space around them, as though the horses are emerging out of the darkness. I bet Gestel was thinking about Franz Marc and the Blue Rider group when he made this drawing. You know, those guys were all about animals and nature as a way to express spiritual truths, so maybe Gestel was trying to tap into that too. I just feel like artists are always in dialogue with each other, riffing on the same themes, pushing each other to see the world in new ways.