Hand met fakkel en ruiten 1939 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing, "Hand met fakkel en ruiten," on paper, but when, who knows? The off-white lines create a series of geometric shapes on the paper. You could get lost in the relationships between these lines, how they create planes and shapes, how they suggest depth. The hand holding the torch at the bottom is so tender, it makes me think about mark-making as an act of holding and caring. The white strokes, almost like erasures, contrast with the neutral paper, generating a soft, dreamlike effect. I love the texture that emerges from this contrast, the almost ethereal quality of the light, especially at the bottom, as if it's emerging from the paper itself. It reminds me of Hilma af Klint's drawings. It’s as if the artist is inviting us to contemplate the unseen, the unsaid, and the infinite possibilities of art.