Escal-Vigor II: Les Amis c. 1915 - 1920

This charcoal drawing, Escal-Vigor II: Les Amis, was made by Willem Arondéus. The gray and black marks conjure a world of shadowy forms, where trees, figures, and structures blend into one another. I imagine Arondeus with his stick of charcoal, working and reworking the forms, building up layers of tone and texture. It’s like he’s carving into the paper, revealing a hidden world buried beneath the surface. What might he have been thinking? Maybe about intimacy, friendship, and how those things are entwined with the natural world? Look at the way the lines intersect and overlap. See how they create a sense of depth and movement? The texture of the charcoal gives the drawing a tactile quality, as if you could reach out and feel the roughness of the bark or the smoothness of the skin. It reminds me of Paula Rego and Käthe Kollwitz whose drawings captured the rawness of human experiences. Artists are constantly in conversation with each other. Each one responds to their predecessors, building upon their ideas and pushing the boundaries of what art can be. We’re all just trying to make sense of the world, one mark at a time.