Picture post card 1945

Curator: Immediately, this piece hits me as utterly charming and strangely poignant. It's lighthearted but carries the weight of a specific historical moment. Editor: Indeed. We’re looking at “Picture post card” by Sikko van der Woude, created around 1945. It's a print and drawing that cleverly juxtaposes the imagery of war and the welcoming gesture of home. Curator: A cartoonish tank with a windmill in the background… And a Dutch girl offering tea, her buckets dangling like hopeful punctuation marks in a world gone mad. The juxtaposition feels so…dada! It reminds me of how humor surfaces in times of struggle, a way to cope with overwhelming circumstances. Editor: Absolutely. And it is precisely those "circumstances" that make this postcard so resonant. The date, 1945, speaks volumes: the end of the war in Europe, liberation, and the yearning for normalcy. Notice how the artist embeds a sort of narrative in the text itself; it is almost a little poem describing that "dutch girl's" smile as a signal. Curator: The American soldier in the tank’s turret, seemingly enraptured...It is like he is returning home to this idyllic scenario...Is it even real or the artist’s wishful thinking? Also, what a visual contrast to see a shovel and bucket mounted on that hunk of military might, it speaks of the rebuilding and the need for reconstruction after war. Editor: Precisely. Van der Woude captures that collective desire, that longing. He offers the visual symbols –the tea kettle, the Dutch girl with her pails– as powerful markers of hope and familiarity. A return to roots after years of global conflict and trauma. It is as if his drawing becomes a sign for people rebuilding Europe. Curator: Considering the cultural impact of American GIs in Europe after the war...it also speaks volumes to American culture becoming something different. Here in this simple postcard, you have American and Dutch symbols side by side. The humble sketch serves as a powerful reminder of humanity's resilience and its innate capacity for hope, even amidst destruction. Editor: And that capacity, I think, is what makes it linger.