Stoomketel 1902

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this drawing, Stoomketel, with graphite on paper. Can you imagine being the artist working and reworking the composition? I see how the artist has moved between areas of more definite mark-making and more ambiguous or suggestive sections. The composition has been built up from the inside out, with many different planes, each with their own spatial dynamic, like the multiple layers of experience. There is a lot of detail to the mechanical components, but the artist's marks are soft and smudgy. Holst’s mark-making reveals a sensitivity to tone and texture that softens the mechanical coldness and geometry of the composition, alluding to the dynamism and energy contained within the steam boiler itself. When artists exchange ideas and aesthetics in this way, amazing things can happen.