Dublin vrouwen 1969

Dirkje Kuik made this etching, Dublin Vrouwen, with ink on paper. Look at how she’s constructed the image, this idea of women by layering lines, and smudging, and by allowing her to process show through. There’s this gorgeous tangle of marks, like a swarm of thoughts clustering around these women. It’s hard to tell where one face begins and another ends. Is it a crowd? Or just a single woman seen from multiple angles, or in different moments? The inky lines are etched into the paper to create a surface that feels both dense and ethereal. Look at the way the faces emerge from the background, shadowy and fleeting. There’s a face in the lower right corner that seems to look right out at us. Kuik seems to be referencing artists like Kathe Kollwitz and Paula Modersohn-Becker who sought to make art that spoke to the everyday realities of women's lives. And like them, Kuik embraces ambiguity, inviting us to bring our own experiences and interpretations to the work.