Groep mensen 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel’s “Groep mensen,” at the Rijksmuseum, is this intimate little drawing that just grabs you with its mood. You can see Gestel really working the charcoal, pushing and pulling at the forms, not so much to define them, but to find them. The surface is alive with marks; smudges and dense concentrations of tone give way to areas where the paper breathes through. The figures are close together, and their faces are obscured, almost dissolving into each other, which creates a sense of mystery and shared experience. There's a real tension between abstraction and figuration going on, and that's where all the juice is. Gestel’s drawing reminds me a bit of Käthe Kollwitz's prints, in that they both have this expressive power and commitment to the medium. With Gestel’s work, like Kollwitz, it’s less about what’s depicted, and more about feeling. In the end, it's this open-ended quality that keeps you looking, wondering, and feeling.