Koppen 1840 - 1880

Johannes Tavenraat created 'Koppen', an ink drawing, on a small piece of paper. The composition is dominated by three profile sketches of men wearing hats, interspersed with seemingly unrelated numbers. The stark contrast between the delicate lines of the portraits and the more assertive, numerical annotations creates a visual tension. The artist has used the formal structure of the page to evoke a sense of fragmentation. Each portrait is rendered with precise lines that capture the unique character of the figures. Tavenraat seems to play with semiotics by presenting a study of human likeness, but alongside an ambiguous set of numbers, inviting us to consider the potential symbolic meanings behind this juxtaposition. By emphasizing line and form, Tavenraat disrupts conventional expectations and invites us to decode the relationship between representation and abstraction.