Kalenderblad januari met staande eend 1908

This is ‘Kalenderblad januari met staande eend’ or January calendar sheet with standing duck, made in 1909 by Theo van Hoytema. You’ll see that the duck has been rendered using these really fine hatching lines, almost like the cross-hatching you see in early printmaking. The whole image is made of these kinds of subtle marks, which when you get up close, give a real sense of the artist’s hand, but from afar they create something quite different. It’s like pixels in a digital image. Each one is a part of something bigger. I love the way the artist contrasts the naturalistic duck with the geometric shapes of the calendar and border design. I’m reminded of the graphic art of someone like Josef Hoffmann, or maybe even Hilma af Klint, though they’re all doing different things. Art is an ongoing exchange of ideas. The way we see things is never fixed!