Zelfportret en hand met stengel Possibly 1972 - 1974

Curator: Let's turn our attention to Kees Stoop's "Self-Portrait and Hand with Stalk," an etching held here at the Rijksmuseum, likely created between 1972 and 1974. Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by the dreamlike quality. The stark black and white, the distorted perspective...it feels unsettling. Like a half-remembered memory. Curator: Yes, the composition is quite arresting. Notice the stark division of space and how the cross-hatching defines texture and volume. The juxtaposition of the self-portrait peering out and the oversized hand holding what appears to be a plant stalk is carefully considered. Semiotically, it presents a complex sign. Editor: It makes me think of mortality and growth. The hand, almost monstrously large, gripping the delicate stem… a powerful symbol of our control, or perhaps our fragility, in the face of nature and time. Are we nurturing or stifling? The portrait, obscured and slightly frantic, intensifies the tension. It looks like the plant may actually be part of his beard. Curator: Indeed, observe how Stoop renders his likeness: the hatching creates a nervous energy, a vibrating intensity. Consider also the visual weight of the dark, heavily etched areas against the relatively bare paper. This balance, or imbalance, is key to the work's dynamism. There's clearly an attention to shape and structure here. The stalk divides the picture, but note the hands point-by-point realism rendered with dots. Editor: The hand also has strong Christian associations; in art and in certain rituals. What does it signify in conjunction with the face, caught as it is, half hidden, gazing at an obscured subject. Perhaps also a gesture from Stoop towards our current social predicament: being forced to interact on Zoom in the COVID years through black rectangular frames. Curator: That is a plausible theory given the date of its creation, perhaps he found his hands increasingly working without a body at the service of a black screen. As he toiled as a portrait maker during this period. A fascinating piece, where the structural elements elevate the personal to something resonant. Editor: It stays with you, doesn't it? The symbolism, the skill, the unsettling feeling... it all adds up to a deeply compelling self-reflection, that acts as a larger reflection on human nature itself.