Paardenhoofden 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing, Paardenhoofden, with a graphite pencil on paper. Just look at that gorgeous repetition. He’s working out the shapes in the negative spaces, isn't he? Like he’s trying to capture something fleeting, essential. I feel the artist here, searching, line after line. You can see where he’s gone over the same contours again and again, as if by adding more marks, he might get closer to the truth of the thing. I wonder if he was thinking about cubism at this stage? I'm thinking of Picasso and his horses. The ghostly suggestions of equine forms. The horse heads are looming in the foreground, but it feels unfinished, open. Gestel isn’t trying to give us a perfect representation. He’s allowing for the possibility of change, of multiple perspectives. It reminds me that paintings are conversations—between the artist, the subject, and all the other artists who have ever tried to capture something real on a flat surface.