Notitie over Mars 1900 - 1903

Antoon Derkinderen’s ‘Notitie over Mars’ is a page filled with scribbled notes, maybe jotted down in a sketchbook. It’s hard to know when he made it. I can only imagine him puzzling over the paper, and I sympathise with him. The handwritten script seems to capture the artist’s stream of consciousness. The pale ochre color of the paper feels warm. I am drawn to the top left corner where the dark-grey ink forms looping and swirling shapes. They are not quite legible. Each stroke appears like a little dance, a playful record of the artist’s musings. I wonder if Derkinderen ever thought his notes would be seen in a gallery? Maybe he imagined someone puzzling over them like this. What I love about painting and drawing is that it can be a form of expression. It is an invitation to delve into the artist’s mind, even when it doesn't make complete sense. It doesn’t have to. Artists are in a constant dialogue, exchanging ideas across time, sparking inspiration in one another’s creative processes.