Vrouwenhoofd 1925

Otto Verhagen made Vrouwenhoofd, or ‘Woman’s Head’, a small etching, sometime in the early 20th century. The sepia ink feels so delicate, like a whisper of an image, built up from so many tiny, individual marks. See how Verhagen has varied the pressure and angle of his etching tool to create different tonal effects. I love the way the image flits between abstraction and figuration. The woman’s features are only lightly suggested, and offset by abstract lines that suggest a decorative frame, or perhaps a surreal, dreamlike setting. There’s an ambiguity, even an awkwardness, to the composition. It’s like the artist is wrestling with the act of representation itself, questioning the nature of perception. This reminds me of late Picasso, in the way he used fractured lines and planes to play with perspective and challenge our expectations of the human form. Ultimately, art isn’t about fixed meanings, but about opening up new ways of seeing, and feeling.