Danser 1906

Reijer Stolk made this drawing, 'Dancer', using pencil and watercolour. The expressive, even frenzied lines might suggest a figure in motion, but also the artist’s inner turmoil. Stolk was a Dutch artist who lived through both World Wars. During the second, he refused to register with the Nazi authorities and went into hiding. Stolk was eventually arrested, and died in a concentration camp. The biographic details of his life inevitably shape how we look at his work, and this one in particular could be viewed as a physical manifestation of psychological distress. The work can be read as a commentary on the artist's social and political circumstances. The use of abstraction could be seen as a deliberate rejection of traditional, conservative artistic styles, expressing his progressive political views. To understand Stolk's work more fully, it can be helpful to examine the historical context of the Netherlands during World War II, and to look at other artists who were creating politically engaged art at the time.