Bandontwerp voor: N.S. Ljeskow, De onsterfelijke, 1965 before 1965

This is a cover design by Karel Thole made in 1965 for a book called "The Immortal". I love the urgency of these hatched marks, crisscrossing over the page. I can imagine Karel Thole hunched over his desk, drawing with furious energy as the deadline for this book cover looms. He must have been thinking: How do I capture immortality in a single image? I bet he wrestled with it, scribbling away, trying to nail that feeling of timelessness, you know? That thick stroke of dark ink slashing across the bottom feels like a shadow, or maybe a tear in the fabric of time itself. The face is so intense, like he’s seen too much, lived too long. And those eyes – they follow you, don't they? It makes me think of other artists grappling with big themes, like Goya and his dark visions. It's like artists are all in this never-ending conversation, riffing off each other's ideas. Painting, drawing, it’s this ongoing experiment, a way of working through ideas, leaving things open, questioning, and always searching for something more.