Portret van Moll Meyer 1968

Dirkje Kuik made this print, Portret van Moll Meyer, in 1963. It's a lithograph, so she's drawing on a stone, which is a real workout, physically. You can tell that she's thinking through mark-making. It's like she's having a conversation with the stone, with all these scratched, nervous lines. It's mostly dark, but there's a soft light on the face. See how the lines around the eye almost vibrate? That's where she's really digging in, trying to find the spirit of the person. It's not just a portrait, it's like she's trying to capture a fleeting thought. The texture of the litho stone gives a kind of depth, a feeling of being worn down, like a face that's seen a lot. Kuik's work always has this intense, searching quality. She reminds me a bit of Käthe Kollwitz, who also used printmaking to explore the emotional weight of human experience. Art isn't about answers, it's about the questions we ask and the connections we make along the way.