Portret van Klaas Koster 1894 - 1998

This is ‘Portret van Klaas Koster,’ a black and white photograph made by the Gebroeders IJpma. It’s not dated, but looking at the tones and sepia-like colours, you can almost feel the era it was created in. I love the way that the marks have aged, the photograph looks like it’s been around the block a few times and this creates another story. It’s got this whole ghostly quality, especially around the jacket. You can see the wear and tear, the scratches that time has left behind and the discolouration is the evidence of the life that it has lived. It reminds you that art is not just an object but also a process that keeps evolving. It makes you wonder, who was Klaas Koster? And what was his story? Perhaps he was a romantic, a scoundrel or a simple guy trying to make it. When you look closely at a piece like this, you are reminded of the works of Gerhard Richter, who plays with abstraction and figuration to create new dimensions of time.