Pieter Holstein 1970

Frank Lodeizen made this drawing, Pieter Holstein, with crayon or charcoal, and paper. There’s a real sense of the hand in this piece, isn’t there? The way the black marks are laid down – jagged, broken, almost like a seismograph recording an earthquake. I imagine Lodeizen hunched over the paper, feeling the pressure of the crayon in his grip. He’s not trying to copy anything, but rather, maybe evoke a feeling of landscape, of depth and distance, of form. The texture of the crayon is so important here, look at how it catches the light, making the surface alive. The repetition of the lines is like a heartbeat, a rhythm that pulls you in. Do you see, in the upper register, how the landscape is repeated with the mark making in the lower? I can feel Lodeizen experimenting, exploring, pushing the boundaries of what a drawing can be. It reminds me of Cy Twombly or even some of the early abstract expressionists. Artists are always talking to each other across time. This drawing is a conversation, an invitation to see the world in a new way.