Duinlandschap c. 1975 - 1976

Kees Stoop made this landscape using etching, with the dimensions being just over 10 by 15 centimeters. It's interesting to think about the process of etching – the artist carefully incising lines into a metal plate, then using acid to bite into those lines, before finally inking and printing. It’s a dance of control and chance. Looking at the image, I wonder what Stoop was thinking, working in monochrome, reducing the world to these stark contrasts. What does it mean to translate a landscape into a series of lines? There's something almost obsessive about the density of marks, especially in the foreground. It reminds me of the way some abstract painters build up layers of marks, each one a small decision contributing to the whole. Maybe Stoop was thinking about earlier landscape artists like Rembrandt, who also used etching to capture the Dutch countryside. It’s all one big conversation through time, artists riffing off each other, finding new ways to see and feel the world.