Gezicht op tuin met struiken en zonnebloemen 1916

This print, "Gezicht op tuin met struiken en zonnebloemen," was made by Jan Mankes, but we don’t know exactly when. Look closely, and you’ll see how he’s built up the image through tiny, almost obsessive marks. You can really get lost in the tactile quality of the dense foliage, like a visual translation of touch. The whole scene is rendered in a muted palette, a world of blacks and grays. This makes the texture even more important, right? The way Mankes contrasts the feathery, almost explosive bushes in the foreground with the flatter, more distant buildings, you get a sense of depth and atmosphere. It’s kind of dreamlike, the way everything blurs together. Mankes reminds me of other artists, say, someone like Odilon Redon, who was similarly interested in creating these very personal, interior landscapes. What stays with you is that it is a record of someone looking, feeling, and trying to make sense of the world, one mark at a time.