Korenaar 1975

Curator: Welcome. We're looking at "Korenaar," a 1975 etching by Kees Stoop. Editor: It has an almost dreamlike quality. The soft, silvery tones and the delicate lines create a very quiet, intimate space. Curator: Precisely. Stoop utilizes the etching technique to achieve a remarkable level of detail. Notice the varying densities of line which gives the image depth. The composition is interesting. On the left is what appears to be raspberry stalks, alongside grain on the right. Editor: The juxtaposition is key. Grain as a symbol of abundance, prosperity and something so very tangible in agrarian cultures versus these wild brambles. Is he commenting on rural versus urban or maybe even access to nourishment and food supply? Curator: It's plausible. Artists rarely work in a vacuum. Considering the socio-political landscape of 1975, anxieties about food security were certainly present. Editor: Zooming in you notice the intentional roughness and slight blurring—evidence of the artist's hand and the mechanical, technical printing process meeting somewhere in the middle. It creates an authenticity, doesn't it? It says something about human creation. Curator: Absolutely. Etching, as a medium, involves both careful control and chance happenings with the acid. Stoop capitalizes on this to give us something very interesting. It gives the still life a vibrant kind of feel, while still having very quiet tones. Editor: I'm now seeing this more about the relationship between cultivated resources, food and how wild places contribute. Thank you, this gives so much to think about. Curator: Indeed, thank you. The social meaning is deeply embedded in the forms we see.