Abklatsch van een krijttekening 1890 - 1931

Willem Bastiaan Tholen made this chalk drawing, Abklatsch van een krijttekening, and what I see here are these soft, almost ghostly marks in shades of gray. I can imagine Tholen in his studio, maybe a little frustrated that he can’t quite capture what he wants. I see the marks as evidence of a wipe or a smear, maybe a failed attempt at something else entirely. It's like the ghost of a drawing, a recording of the act of making itself. You know, I've been thinking a lot about the idea of "failure" in art, and I wonder if Tholen was thinking about it too. Sometimes the mistakes, the accidents, they're the things that really make a piece sing. In this work, the surface texture and the subtle gradations of tone become the real subject. Artists are always in conversation with each other, even across time. I imagine Tholen looking at the work of other artists who embraced ambiguity and process, and I think about how their ideas continue to resonate with us today.