Verlaten land 1975

Harrie Gerritz made this etching titled ‘Verlaten land’ – which I think means ‘Deserted Land’ – sometime in the mid-twentieth century. Look at those isolated architectural structures. I wonder what it was like for Gerritz to build up these scenes, block by block, with such sparse strokes. What was he thinking? Perhaps about the end of things, how places become empty and what remains. The material quality is what gets me. It's really sparse, with simple lines and forms. But then these strange rectangles of white, blue, and black inside a building draw me in. That particular blue, it’s like a shard of something, maybe a memory or a feeling that stands out against the muted tones. The etching feels like a conversation with artists like Giorgio Morandi. They both find poetry in simplicity. It's a reminder that artists are always looking, borrowing, and transforming what they see. We can all interpret its stark landscapes.