Schip met een man aan het roer 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this work on paper with pencil, charcoal, or something similar. I imagine him, squinting, trying to capture the essence of these boats. Gestel lays down some decisive marks, then a lighter touch. He is searching, you can see that. The composition is not one boat but several, as if he is working out the angles, the forms, seeing how they sit in space. Each mark seems to inform the next. Maybe he was interested in Cubism? There’s something about the way he simplifies and abstracts the boat's shape that feels very modern, like he’s breaking it down to its basic elements. Artists are always talking to each other across time, borrowing and riffing off each other’s ideas. Gestel, in his own way, is part of this conversation, and he invites us to join in with him. It's all about the process: the looking, the feeling, and the doing.