Vertrekkende vogel 1976

This is Harrie Gerritz’s, Vertrekkende vogel, made with graphite, pen, and watercolor. There's a kind of provisionality to the image that reminds me of how artmaking is a process of thinking through materials. Look at the rough edges of the drawing, the way the square within a square is not quite square and the colors haven’t quite filled in. I love the gentle, washy quality of the watercolor, especially on the barred gate at the bottom. The green is so subtle, almost like a memory of green. And then there’s the bird, floating above, rendered in a peachy hue. The bird’s placement gives the feeling of a before and after sequence, or a portal opening above the gate. The whole thing feels like a delicate balancing act, a quiet conversation between line and color, form and feeling. In some ways it reminds me of the work of Giorgio Morandi. Like Morandi, Gerritz finds poetry in the simplest of subjects. He shows us how much can be said with very little.