Vogelkop en rieten dak c. 1944 - 1990

Kees Stoop made this etching, "Vogelkop en rieten dak," probably sometime in the late twentieth century. Look at the way the tones are built up with these tiny, tiny lines, like he’s constructing the image bit by bit. It’s a slow, deliberate process, etching, you have to really commit. And what a strange pairing of images! The thatched roof and the trees behind have this kind of cozy, domestic feel. Then you’ve got this stark, almost aggressive bird head stuck on the side. The beak is so pointy! The texture of the bird’s feathers are so different to the surface of the thatch - it's interesting to see how an artist can make such different marks with the same tool. It's like two different worlds colliding. It reminds me a little of the surrealist collages of Max Ernst, the way he'd bring together these disparate images and create a new, unsettling reality. With surrealism there's never one true meaning but somehow, they create worlds that feel both familiar and deeply strange.