Ruiter te paard binnen rood kader c. 1965 - 1980

Aat Verhoog made this print, 'Ruiter te paard binnen rood kader', which translates as 'Horseman in a Red Frame', using a combination of techniques. Look at all those tiny marks on the ground; I can only imagine the hours spent building up that surface! I wonder what Verhoog was thinking about when he made this. Did he have a particular rider in mind, or was he more interested in the relationship between the figure and the frame? The red square feels both arbitrary and meaningful, doesn't it? It cuts off the rider and his horse from the rest of the landscape but also seems to protect them, turning them into a kind of icon or memory. It reminds me of the work of other artists who use frames and boxes to play with perspective and meaning, like Robert Ryman or even some of the early Renaissance painters. The flatness and the attention to detail create a unique tension. It’s a conversation across time, where artists build on each other’s ideas, transforming them in unexpected ways. It's these kinds of experiments that keep painting alive, an ongoing exploration of what it means to see and feel.