Kop van een man 1906 - 1945

This drawing, Head of a Man, was made by Reijer Stolk, but when exactly, we don't know. Look at all these tentative, searching lines! It's like Stolk is feeling his way around this guy's face, trying to capture something that's almost there but not quite. I imagine him squinting, head cocked to one side, pencil flying across the page, smudging and erasing, trying to nail down the ghost of an expression. Notice how the marks are darker and more insistent around the eyes, giving them a haunted, soulful quality. And then, lower down, those almost manic vertical scribbles – what's that about? Is it the shadow of a beard, or is it Stolk just working out some kind of private anxiety on the page? I feel like he's channeling something beyond just a likeness. It reminds me of the raw, almost desperate energy you see in the drawings of other artists like, say, Guston. We all stand on each other's shoulders in a way. It is the life of an artist, an ongoing conversation.