Klein maanlicht avontuur 1978

Harrie Gerritz pulled this print, Klein maanlicht avontuur, which translates as ‘small moonlight adventure’, out of who-knows-where, probably his own imagination. I love the stacked planes of flat color in this piece, there's a real tension between abstraction and representation here. The pink moon seems to hang in the air as much as the graphic silhouettes of the deer. I can almost feel the artist playing with the relationships between form and color, pushing and pulling the composition until it feels just right. It reminds me of the way Guston would toy with shapes and colors in his later work, finding that sweet spot between representation and pure abstraction. That thin, pink line across the earth interrupts the solidity of the earth, and opens up this odd little dreamscape. It’s a beautiful reminder that art is all about conversation, artists talking to each other across time and space, riffing on each other’s ideas.