Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - The World Held in One Palm

A hand rises out of the dark and opens its palm, and in the curve of the sphere it holds, an entire room folds itself into a single bent reflection, with a man seated at its centre, looking straight back out. The World Held in One Palm is a tribute to Hand with Reflecting Sphere by M. C. Escher, the self-portrait in which the artist held up his own studio and his own face, curved whole into the glass he was holding, proof that to see yourself clearly you first have to bend the whole world around you. This is an independent and unique work by Tijs Dragtsma, not a copy, a reproduction, a print or an edition of Escher's lithograph, and not made, authorised, endorsed or licensed by his estate or any foundation that carries his name. It answers his gesture from another hour and another sitter, not the artist studying his own reflection, but a stranger, bearded and still, held inside a room that no longer answers to him. Here the hand is the brightest thing in the frame, each finger and the deep lines of the palm built from a field of fine scratches that gather the light and hold it. The sphere's curve is drawn the same way, a thin bright seam bending a window and a bare room around the seated man at its centre. He himself stays close to silhouette, a dark figure kept inside the glow that surrounds him, present but withheld, more felt than seen, while beyond the hand the background keeps its full, untouched black. No paint. No print. No ink. The image is formed by controlled scratches worked into the surface of the acrylic glass, not applied onto it, and it is always present, with or without direct light. Light does not create it. It sharpens it, so that under a raking beam the curve of the sphere deepens and the hand seems to lift further out of the dark. The World Held in One Palm belongs to In Tribute, a series within Art with Scratch by Tijs Dragtsma in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print, and in which that same damage becomes a way of answering the landmarks of art history with a new voice, built from light and shadow rather than paint or line. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure. The sphere holds a whole room. The hand holds the sphere. And somewhere inside all that curved light, someone sits and looks back. "He holds the room. The room holds him." About Art with Scratch Art with Scratch is a body of work in which the image is not drawn, but released. Carved line by line into a deep black surface, each work emerges through countless precise scratches that catch the light and bring form out of darkness. From a distance, the image appears almost photographic. Powerful, recognisable and full of presence. Yet up close, the work dissolves into a dense field of individual marks. Fine, fragile and almost weightless. What seemed solid reveals itself as a delicate web of lines, each one a deliberate gesture, each one essential to the whole. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The black surface absorbs, while the scratched lines reflect. As light shifts across the surface, the image breathes. From one angle the figure stands clear and defined. From another it softens and settles back toward the darkness from which it came, without ever disappearing. Under a focused spotlight, the contrast deepens and the image takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. What makes this medium so compelling is its quiet tension. The act of scratching is direct and irreversible. Every line is a decision that cannot be undone. Yet the result is not harsh. It is intimate, atmospheric and alive with movement. Hardness becomes softness. Destruction becomes creation. Absence becomes presence. In works such as this portrait, the figure is never fully fixed. Through the interplay of line, light and shadow, the image shifts with perspective and atmosphere. At certain moments, the subject seems to step forward out of the black. At others, it settles back into stillness. It is within that movement, between sharpness and calm, that the work comes alive. Like all materials touched by time, the surface carries its own quiet life. Each scratch holds a moment, a breath, a gesture. Together they form not just an image, but a presence, one that continues to reveal itself with every change of light. About the Artist My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio. As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together. My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create. Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence. I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time. TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.

Schätzpreis:€3,500

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