Zittende prentverzamelaar omgeven door portolio's, naast hem een staande man 1921 - 1922

Curator: This print by Armand Coussens, executed sometime between 1921 and 1922, is titled "Zittende prentverzamelaar omgeven door portfolio's, naast hem een staande man"—or, "Seated print collector surrounded by portfolios, next to him a standing man." Editor: The chaotic lines really strike me first. A sense of nervous energy permeates what would otherwise be a very still scene. Curator: I'm intrigued by that tension. The visual discord arises from the conflicting application of lines. Note the frenetic hatching of the seated figure versus the more decisive rendering of the man standing, suggesting two separate psychic states, each responding to, yet alienated from, the portfolios which encompass them. Editor: Ah, so the portfolios are an inescapable boundary? The etching method is so important here; each line bears weight. You cannot look at this print and imagine it as a painting. I think we have here a commentary on connoisseurship and the marketplace in the postwar period. Coussens may be poking fun at both, a bit of social satire. Curator: Yes, I think that rings true! By the stark juxtaposition, there’s a visible stratification created. One could say this print engages in the politics of collecting: we can almost feel a patronizing aura, suggesting economic hierarchies embedded in what some might consider neutral cultural consumption. But this could also apply to class, in that Coussens explores access to and custodianship of culture, where both collectors and dealers had to grapple with the impact of war on the circulation of value. Editor: These characters—I see this as capturing a very specific moment, as if we are viewing a transaction in the artist's own, subjective world. They are defined through the artist's deliberate lines, more so than through grand social shifts, right? The semiotics seem quite confined here—a man, his suit, paper. And a collector examining his pieces. Curator: The gestural quality hints to both immediacy and artifice. Though static, it does not necessarily preclude agency. We have an intriguing piece, reflecting collecting from that period, in form as well as in subject. Editor: Indeed. It’s a testament to Coussens's sharp eye, using modest means to express a complex social situation.