Organisatie 1878 - 1938

This drawing, ‘Organisatie’, was made by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst at an unknown date. It’s got these strong but muted colours, mostly ochre and reds, with some greyish blues, that give it a kind of earthy feel. Looking at this, I can imagine Roland Holst meticulously sketching out the composition, maybe tweaking the positions of the figures, the angles of their limbs, trying to get the balance just right. The figures, they're caught in these really dynamic poses, all working together, lifting, pulling, and hammering away. You can see the marks underneath, a ghost of an idea that's been changed, adjusted. What was he thinking when he made this? Maybe it was about the idealization of labor, or the power of collective effort... It makes me think about the Futurists and their obsession with machinery, but there’s also something classical here, a nod to ancient friezes. It reminds you that all artists are in this ongoing dialogue across time, borrowing, responding, and pushing back against what came before.