Namen en adressen 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this drawing titled 'Namen en adressen' with a pencil, and the casual arrangement of the text is what strikes me most. It’s like the act of writing and the record of the artist’s thought process are one and the same. There’s a beauty in the texture of the paper and the light, feathery quality of the pencil lines. Look at the way the addresses are underlined, almost as if each one is being framed. And notice how the artist has circled one of the texts, making it stand out like an excerpt of a poem. The overall effect is informal and intimate, like we're looking at a page torn straight from the artist's notebook. The way Stolk has used the simple medium of pencil to create something so full of life and energy reminds me of the work of Cy Twombly. Both artists understood that art is not about perfection but about the energy that is put into the work.