Twee gezichten 1933

This drawing called Twee gezichten was made by Leo Gestel, but when, we don't know. The artist uses charcoal and chalk to depict two faces. You can see how the chalk creates this almost ghostly glow on the faces, like they are emerging from the shadows. I love that the paper itself is part of the picture, this kind of buff colour, like raw canvas. Gestel isn't trying to hide his process at all. You can see the smudges, the places where he's layered the charcoal, building up the depth and the form. The lines are loose and expressive, not precise. There's a real energy in the way he's handled the materials. Look at the way the noses are rendered; the stark angles of the face on the left are so different to the soft, rounded cheek of the face on the right. Gestel, like Picasso, was clearly interested in the way that multiple viewpoints can be shown in one single picture. They both understood art as a form which embraces ambiguity, multiple interpretations, always an ongoing conversation across time.