Katten 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this lovely drawing of cats on paper, and it's just a little reminder of how drawings can capture the essence of a thing. It's all about the line here, isn't it? Thin, exploratory, like the artist is feeling his way around the form of these sleepy, stretching cats. You can almost see the movement in the tentative strokes, the way the lines curve and pause, suggesting weight and softness. Look at the bottom cat, how the single line describes its back, arching elegantly, and then swooping down to define its curled tail. It's so simple, but so effective, like a haiku in visual form. There's a touch of Matisse in the economy of line, that same sense of capturing the vitality of a subject with the fewest possible marks. But Stolk brings his own sensitivity to it, a gentle observation of these creatures in their most unguarded moments. It makes you want to pick up a pencil and try to capture the world around you, one line at a time.