Kroonkaketoe 1924

Curator: Before us is Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita’s 1924 etching, "Kroonkaketoe," or Crowned Cockatoo, at the Rijksmuseum. It's rendered in ink on paper. Editor: Striking! My immediate reaction is how graphic it is, almost a woodcut in its boldness. There’s a real starkness to it that pulls you in. I am keen to learn how it was achieved. Curator: I see something totemic, even archaic in the image. The cockatoo, in its simplified form, carries an almost spiritual weight. Throughout history, birds often represented transcendence and messages from the divine, or harbingers of ill omen, perhaps foreshadowing themes found within de Mesquita’s difficult biography. Editor: Let's think about process: look at how those regimented, almost brutal strokes create texture. You can imagine the artist really carving into the plate to create this, line by line. It’s not subtle or painterly. You can imagine the workshop with ink stained hands that it emerges from. Curator: Yet there’s also a decorative element to this print that aligns it with Art Nouveau; it's visible in its elegance and the subtle geometry. It really elevates what could be just a naturalistic rendering. The repeating horizontal lines of its feathers lend themselves perfectly to symbolist interpretations. Each individual line, distinct yet together they form something more meaningful, the ‘essence’ of a cockatoo as opposed to just a mere replication. Editor: Right. That geometry and stylized representation also draws attention to the printed object itself. The evenness of the ink, the register of the printing - these material qualities speak of careful labor. The sharp lines indicate either masterful control or a high degree of attrition, I imagine. Curator: It's as if the artist isn’t just showing us a cockatoo, but also presenting us with an emblem. De Mesquita's personal life was full of displacement and loss, and these themes recur throughout his printmaking practice. Animals and their inherent characteristics function here like a visual metaphor of endurance against these powerful and invisible historical currents. Editor: And maybe this cockatoo, produced with such intentional labor and presented as something iconic, resists being just another easily-consumed decorative object. It demands attention, reflecting that manual process involved in its production, rather than glossing over it for an aesthetic effect. Curator: Perhaps it functions as both a beautiful thing, as well as an expression of perseverance, captured in these enduring lines. Editor: Agreed. An intersection of the aesthetic and the labor behind the aesthetic, telling quite a material story in simple monochrome.