De Fakkel 1925

Hendrik Chabot made this print, it looks like a linocut, probably fairly early in the twentieth century. The colours are limited: red earth and black. I can imagine Hendrik in his studio, cutting away at the linoleum, working the design in reverse. It is difficult to arrive at such a striking composition, such solid forms, through intuition alone. Maybe he made preliminary sketches, adjusting the composition until it spoke to him. There's a strange dialogue going on here between the abstract and the figurative. On one side a series of blocks, of positive and negative space, and on the other, a few towers or buildings, and the flame of a torch. The work reminds me a little of the graphic novels of Frans Masereel, a contemporary of Chabot. All of these artists were in dialogue, part of an ongoing conversation across time, where one’s work sparks something in another, and keeps creativity flowing.