Krab c. 1916

Reijer Stolk drew this crab with graphite on paper; it's a sketch, really, more of a whisper than a shout. The lines are so tentative, aren't they? Like Stolk was feeling his way around the form. There’s this beautiful rectangle, very lightly drawn, that contains the crab, but the crab overflows it. And up above, another set of almost-not-there scribbles. Are they related, or just doodles? The whole thing feels so provisional, like a fleeting thought. I love how you can see the artist thinking, changing his mind, layering one line over another, it reminds me of some of Philip Guston's looser, sketchier works. In the end art is a conversation and exchange of ideas across time, with no fixed meanings.