Kat met staart omhoog before 1939

This cat with its tail up in the air was made by Tip van Schoonhoven van Beurden, and it’s a print on paper. It’s funny, isn’t it, how the simplest marks can conjure a whole world? Look at the way this artist has used these scratchy, almost stitched lines to create the cat’s form. I can imagine them, bent over the plate, pushing the needle this way and that. The whole thing has this hand-made, intimate quality. You know, when you look at art, you’re actually looking at someone’s actions, decisions, doubts. I mean, what was Tip thinking when they made this? Maybe they just loved cats, or maybe they were playing with the idea of domesticity versus wildness. It’s cool how one artist’s work can spark something in another, across time and space. We’re all just riffing off each other, trying to figure things out.