Hand met twee vlinders voor een raster 1939 - 1941

Curator: Leo Gestel’s "Hand met twee vlinders voor een raster," made between 1939 and 1941, presents a compelling image. Gestel renders, in drawing on paper, a hand alongside butterflies set against a stark geometric grid. I am struck by how simple the forms are. What do you see in this piece? Editor: I find it difficult to reconcile the hand and butterflies, so full of life, with the rigid, almost clinical grid behind them. Curator: Exactly! Let's consider the period. This was created during the onset of World War II. Does the imposition of a grid, something so structured and unyielding, resonate with the sociopolitical environment of that time? Could it reflect the encroaching sense of control and the suppression of freedom experienced by many? Editor: That makes sense. The hand almost looks trapped, and the butterflies… fleeting. Was Gestel making a statement about the war? Curator: Possibly, but the beauty lies in the ambiguity. The hand is not struggling; it's almost offering the butterflies to this structure. Perhaps Gestel is pointing to the complicated ways individuals found to co-exist with oppression or to discover resistance within it. Consider also the rise of abstraction in this era—did artists like Gestel see it as a form of coded protest? Editor: So the grid isn't just a background, but a key part of the meaning? Curator: Precisely. It transforms what might be a simple, decorative sketch into a potent commentary on agency, restriction, and even a quiet sort of defiance. I wonder what other artists thought about this composition during that period. Editor: It really makes you rethink what art can say without being overtly political. Curator: Yes. Gestel presents us with a nuanced, thought-provoking vision. There are so many cultural readings embedded within such subtle choices, it feels like this is not the drawing that it seems at first glance.