Twee maskers voor gebouw en rotsen (schets) before 1936

Leo Gestel made this sketch of two masks with graphite and ink on paper. It's a study, loose and searching, as if the artist is coaxing these forms into being. I imagine Gestel's hand moving quickly, capturing fleeting thoughts and impressions. The dark mask is shadowed, mysterious, while the other is turned to face us. The contrast is really striking; a dialogue, perhaps between different aspects of the self. Look at the surface texture, the paper, the way the ink bleeds slightly, it all speaks to the immediacy of the creative act. There's a kind of playful ambiguity here, too. The masks are objects, but they also evoke human emotions, or social roles. It makes me think of Picasso and the way he used masks to explore identity and representation. Artists are always building on each other's ideas, riffing on the past to create something new. This piece feels like a vital step in Gestel’s process, where uncertainty is embraced and meaning emerges through exploration.