Aardappelrooiers op het land 1927

Leo Gestel made "Aardappelrooiers op het land" with paint on paper. Look how the soft, earthy colors give it a kind of quiet, stoic mood. You can almost feel the weight of the soil and the workers’ labor, right? I love how Gestel's attention to the texture of everything, from the workers' clothes to the potatoes themselves, it's all there in the brushstrokes. The way he’s built up these layers gives the scene a palpable sense of depth. Notice the worker on the right; see how the figure is only part-rendered? Gestel is less interested in perfect representation and more in conveying a felt sense of this tough, physical work. This piece makes me think a little of Paula Modersohn-Becker, she wasn’t afraid to depict the lives of rural laborers with that same unflinching directness and with so much humanity. Art isn’t about answers, it’s about the questions we ask, and the conversations we have.