Zeilboten aan een kade 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk drew 'Zeilboten aan een kade', or 'Sailboats on a Quay', with graphite on paper. You know, sometimes the most captivating things are the sketches, the underdrawings, the bare bones of a thing! I love the vulnerability of this drawing, the sheer amount of erasure and redrawing involved, of working through and thinking through, by hand. I like to imagine Reijer Stolk standing there, squinting, trying to capture the angles of masts and booms in the harbor; it looks as if he might be struggling to bring into being exactly what is in front of him, but also pushing what he sees into the realm of feeling. I always think about how artists are in ongoing conversation, like passing notes in class across time, inspiring one another's creativity. For Stolk, and for many artists, drawing is like a form of embodied expression where ambiguity and uncertainty are embraced, leaving space for multiple readings.