Kerstkaart voor 1936 van W.P. Ebbinge Wubben-Van Hasselt 1936

This Christmas card was made around 1936, probably using pencil or graphite, by an anonymous artist for W.P. Ebbinge Wubben-Van Hasselt. The piece has this incredible sense of light, like a spotlight illuminating a stage. It’s almost theatrical! The card’s monochromatic palette has this great range of grays, achieved with delicate pencil strokes. It gives a sense of both precision and softness. Look at how the artist has rendered the sky, using varying pressure to create a subtle gradient, like a dusky winter night. And then there’s the star, shining brightly, leading us to the nativity scene. The ground plane is rendered in strong triangular shapes, reminiscent of early modernist abstraction, like cubism or vorticism. The piece is so simple, yet it evokes so much. It makes me think of other artists like Agnes Martin or even Ad Reinhardt, whose work explores the spiritual through minimalism. It speaks to the power of simplicity in art, how less can truly be more, inviting contemplation.