Bloemstengels c. 1970

Kees Stoop made this print of flower stalks, probably sometime in the mid to late twentieth century. You can almost feel him etching, his hand moving, scratching those tight, rhythmic lines into the metal. I’m imagining Stoop in his studio, inking and wiping, running the plate through the press again and again. What was he thinking, as he built up this dense thicket of shapes? It feels like a memory. Look at how the light flickers across the surface! It’s like he’s trying to capture not just what he sees, but how it feels to be there, surrounded by these looming stalks. And that far side receding into a field of similar shapes! It’s such a personal take on landscape, you know? Stoop seems to be saying something about life itself, about growth and decay, and the strange beauty you can find in the most unexpected places. I think all artists are in conversation with each other and with the past, constantly finding new ways to express something fundamental about what it means to be human.