Copulerend stel 1966

Aat Verhoog made this print of a couple, sometime in the twentieth century. It’s a drawing, really, etched into a plate. It looks like the artist reworked the plate several times. The couple appears in multiple positions and the image shimmers with movement. It’s like Verhoog was trying to capture not just the appearance of the couple, but the feeling of intimacy, the movement, the push and pull. The drawing is mostly just an outline, simple and unadorned. Yet there are details, like the woman’s curly hair, and the hatching on the man’s thigh. It makes me think of Picasso, who also returned to the theme of couples repeatedly throughout his career, but here the tender lines communicate something very different. It's a process of layering and revealing that is full of vulnerability. Art, at its best, is a conversation across time, an ongoing exploration of what it means to be human.