Gebladerte 1939 - 2009

Kees Stoop made this drawing of foliage, with charcoal on paper. It's funny how charcoal can turn something as alive and vibrant as leaves into a world of stark contrasts. Stoop’s mark-making feels immediate, each stroke a quick decision, piling up to create this dense thicket. You can almost feel the scratch of the charcoal on the page, a real physical process. Look at the upper-left corner, where the dark marks are almost solid, a kind of shadowy mass. From there, the leaves emerge, or maybe recede, as flickering gestures, opening into the white of the page. There is an almost claustrophobic feeling to the image, but also a feeling of growth, of natural vitality, reminiscent perhaps of Van Gogh's drawings, where the energy of the line becomes as important as the subject itself. It’s like Stoop is showing us not just the leaves, but the very act of seeing them.