Vignet voor biografie van Gestel door Prof. W. van der Pluym 1935 - 1936

Leo Gestel made this pen and ink drawing, Vignet voor biografie van Gestel door Prof. W. van der Pluym, for a biography. Look how the marks accumulate; it's less about defining shapes and more about feeling out the edges. The drawing is all about the line and the negative space. It's interesting, the rhythm he sets up as the marks bounce between being descriptive and being purely abstract. Notice the simple, almost cartoonish shapes of the windmill, the houses, and the trees. They are all there, but at the same time, the drawing is really about the energy of the lines themselves. The windmill, for example, is defined by these simple, almost childlike lines, yet it still manages to convey a sense of weight and solidity. It reminds me a little of some of Guston's late work, that same interest in simplicity and directness, but also that playful quality of drawing as a way of thinking and feeling. It's like Gestel is saying, “Here’s the world, but it’s also just a bunch of lines on a page, and that’s okay too.”