Menselijke schedel op een stok before 1936

F. Ockerse made this drawing, "Menselijke schedel op een stok," with pencil on paper. There are two skulls here, and it's interesting how different they feel, right? The skull on the left is like a ghostly whisper, softly rendered with delicate lines that seem to float on the page. It is almost as if the skull is emerging from the paper. On the right, the skull is more insistent, the lines are dark and definite, its presence declaring itself boldly. The difference in the treatment of line and tone gives each skull a distinct personality, from the wispy etherial rendering on the left, to the stark image on the right, the artist is playing with what is there and what is not. It reminds me of Philip Guston's later works, where he embraced a raw, almost cartoonish style to convey deep emotional truths. Like Guston, Ockerse uses a seemingly simple approach to explore complex themes of mortality and meaning. Ultimately, it is up to us to find our own meaning in the image, a mirror for our own mortality.