Le général parle 1970

Aat Verhoog made 'Le général parle' with pen on paper, though when exactly remains a mystery. The linear precision gives the piece a mechanical feel, like a blueprint or technical diagram, but there's a quirky freedom in the rendering of forms. Take that cloud, for instance. It’s got this electric blue halo, sketched with such energy it practically vibrates off the page. And then you’ve got these generals stuck in a box, looming like cardboard cutouts. It's all so strange and unnatural. The hand, rendered in this fleshy red-orange, is pushing rectangular blocks. It's so suggestive, like some kind of bizarre control panel, or the general is about to unleash a house of cards. It reminds me of Magritte, but with a rougher, more playful edge. Verhoog isn't afraid to leave the marks visible, inviting us to trace the artist's hand and to question art as something fixed.