Compositie (Zeilen op een meer) 1915

Jacoba van Heemskerck made this composition, Zeilen op een meer, a woodcut, cutting shapes to make shapes. The blocky forms push and pull in this print. Look at the bottom of the image, how it becomes apparent these shapes make a shoreline. Heemskerck balances this hard edge with a soft one; the striations of the inky surface give it a hazy, smudgy, almost dreamlike quality. Then you notice how the forms are arranged, a rhythmic, almost architectural series of sails, or even spires, creating a push and pull that asks you to think differently about the world around you. It reminds me of Hilma af Klint’s diagrammatic paintings, even though the surface and mediums are totally different. Both artists were deeply interested in abstraction as a way to get at something beyond the visible world. These boats are not really boats, but abstracted shapes in light. And just like that, a picture of sailboats becomes a gateway to another dimension.