Struikgewas 1939 - 2009

Kees Stoop made this drawing, ‘Struikgewas’, with black chalk on paper. I imagine Stoop outside, squinting into the middle distance, charcoal in hand. He sees a view, perhaps from a park, contained by a fence, and then, using the side of the chalk, he renders a kind of all-over field, with the trees pushing and pulling. It feels as though the landscape has been built from the bottom up. I think of Philip Guston’s late work, with all those hairy black marks bumping up against one another. Both artists show us the world as a thick and clotted place. Look at the top right corner, where the chalk fades out, leaving a ghost of an impression – it's like Stoop is searching for the limit of perception. Artists are always looking at one another’s work, across time, and having a conversation about how to depict what we see, feel and think. Painting is about this conversation, one mark at a time.