De trap des levens 1922

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made "De trap des levens", or "The Stairway of Life", with chalk and charcoal, playing with colour, light, and dark. It’s a study for stained glass, so it has this graphic, bold quality. I love the way Holst uses simple lines and blocks of color to create these figures. Notice how the dark lines define the shapes, but then the colors inside are soft and muted. It’s like he’s building the image from the ground up, layer by layer. Look at the hand of the figure at the top, reaching down. It’s such a simple gesture, but it conveys so much about connection and guidance. It’s this very human moment, captured in these really abstract forms. Holst’s work reminds me of the early abstraction of someone like Hilma af Klint, who was also exploring spiritual themes through geometric forms and symbolic colors. Both artists were interested in the idea of art as a way to access deeper truths, and they weren’t afraid to embrace ambiguity and let the viewer bring their own interpretations to the work.