Portret van Dolf Cohen 1976

This is Rein Dool's portrait of Dolf Cohen, a lithograph, and it lives at the Rijksmuseum. Dool really captures a sense of weight here, both physical and maybe metaphorical. It’s all in the marks, that kind of frantic, scribbled hatching that builds up the shadows, like he’s mapping out the terrain of Cohen's face and body. Look at the way he renders the hands, the quick, nervous lines suggesting a kind of restless energy or anxiety. There’s an immediacy to lithography, a directness that allows for a very physical kind of mark-making. You can almost feel Dool’s hand moving across the plate. I think of someone like Marlene Dumas, who also uses the suggestive power of ink and paper to create portraits that feel both intimate and elusive. Art isn't about fixed meanings, but about creating a space for thinking and feeling.