Denkend aan het voortbestaan 1978

Harrie Gerritz made "Denkend aan het voortbestaan" – which translates to 'Thinking about survival' – a print, a combination of etching and screen printing. The way Gerritz uses line feels both ancient and immediate. Look at the top bull, it is like he's channeling cave paintings, making this ghostly outline in pale blues and greys, so different from the cow trapped below. It is black and white, sharply defined and looks totally stuck to its spot, fenced in. I wonder, is that a flower over there? And what does it mean that it is tethered to the cow? I am really drawn to this strange combination of delicacy and starkness. There is something so tender about the pale colours and open space, but also a starkness to the lines of the barbed wire. Like Jasper Johns, Gerritz is interested in how the simplest of forms and colours can hold complex, contradictory emotions.