Liggende hond 1884 - 1927

Editor: This is "Liggende hond" – or "Reclining Dog" – a pencil drawing by Johan Antonie de Jonge, created sometime between 1884 and 1927. The dog looks almost incomplete, very roughly sketched. How do you interpret this work? Curator: It’s interesting, isn't it? It invites us to think about representation itself. De Jonge’s sketch is clearly a dog, but the incompleteness opens up questions about how we define "dogness," shall we say? It touches on the themes of visibility and marginalization... consider what is shown versus what is deliberately omitted. How might that reflect the way certain beings – animals, people, ideas – are rendered less visible, less complete, in broader societal narratives? Editor: That's a really compelling way to look at it. I hadn't thought about the politics of incompleteness. I was focused on the aesthetic quality of the unfinished sketch. Curator: Think about the implications within artistic traditions and how that links to larger power structures, maybe through a lens of whose stories are deemed worthy of being fully told, and whose are just fragments. Do you see it as simply an artistic choice, or something more profound? Editor: I see what you mean. Maybe the quickness suggests a need to capture the fleeting presence of the dog without fully possessing its image, it could signal some form of…respect? Curator: Exactly. It reminds us that art is never created in a vacuum, and our readings of it are inevitably shaped by our own experiences and positionalities. Editor: I'm beginning to appreciate the subtle ways a seemingly simple sketch can spark critical dialogues on power and representation. Curator: And hopefully, it inspires us to look deeper, to ask more questions, and to challenge the status quo in all aspects of life.