Heuvellandschap met elektriciteitspalen en twee figuren 1913 - 1945

Henk Henriët’s ‘Heuvellandschap met elektriciteitspalen en twee figuren’ is a drawing of a landscape punctuated by the geometry of electricity poles and two lone figures walking along the road. Looking at this drawing, I think about how much editing is involved in making a mark, rubbing it away, adding another, finding a form, losing it, and finding it again. Henriët leaves space for the viewer to complete the image. I sympathize with the artist, and imagine him thinking about scale and the way the eye travels in space. I wonder if he was thinking about the dialogue between natural and man-made forms, and the way industry and everyday life intersect. The piece is a stark and muted meditation on a modern landscape. Just like artists borrow from one another, Henriët’s drawing speaks to a shared visual language and the conversations between artists over time, always responding to what came before. It reminds me a little of Mondrian’s early landscapes!