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Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Contemporary Art / Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Galilei Traced in Moss
Galileo Galilei surfaces here the way he first understood the universe, not by illumination but by careful, patient looking. Out of a deep green field, the crown of curls, the furrowed brow, the watching eyes, the long beard and the torn edge of a ruff collar are formed entirely from a field of individual marks cut into the glass, while a hand reaches into the dark at the lower edge, caught mid gesture toward something we cannot see. The likeness is built through removal, not addition. No paint, no print, no ink sits on this surface. Every line of the beard, every crease of the collar and every fold of the coat exists only where the surface itself has been broken, so the man is present exactly where the material has given way. The glass itself is green, the colour of a lens turned toward the night, of the long patient study that once reshaped how we see the sky. That same green now holds the man who looked first, its darkness standing in for the void he stared into, its quiet shine standing in for the discoveries that shine back at us still. The mirror does not stay still behind him. The room, its light and the person standing before the work are drawn into the coloured surface, moving between the scratches and settling into the untouched black around them, so that anyone who looks at Galileo is also looked back at, folded into the same field he occupies. The image is always there, present in full even in a dim room, because the marks themselves carry it, not the light. Under direct light the scratches catch and gather brightness, the contrast deepens and the face gains weight and depth, but nothing here appears or vanishes. Light does not create this portrait. It sharpens it. This work continues the Art on Mirror series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which scratched imagery is set into coloured mirror glass and the viewer becomes part of the work, a visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure, and where the mirror turns looking into taking part. This work is unique. "He taught us to look closer. Now the glass asks the same of you." About Art on Mirror – Green Art on Mirror is a body of work in which the image is scratched into coloured mirror glass, and the world in front of the work becomes part of it. Every line is cut into a deep green mirrored surface of acrylic glass. The scratches are always there, bright against the colour, while the surface around them keeps reflecting the room, the daylight and the person looking. From a distance the image reads clear and complete, a pale figure held in a field of green. Step closer and the work opens into a delicate web of individual marks, fine and deliberate, each one essential to the whole. Behind and between them the mirror does what a mirror does. It carries the room and the viewer into the composition, so the surroundings in the work change with the place where it hangs, while the image itself stays firmly in place. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The green ground absorbs and reflects, the scratched lines catch and hold, and under a focused spotlight the contrast deepens until the figure takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. In softer light the colour comes forward and the work settles into a quieter register, without ever losing its subject. Green is the colour of growth, of forests and of things that keep returning. That is the emotional ground every work in this series is set against, and the subjects are chosen to belong to it. Art on Mirror continues the scratched imagery of Art with Scratch by Tijs Dragtsma on a new ground. Where the black works draw their power from absence, these draw it from reflection. The viewer is no longer only looking at the work. The viewer is in it. 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.
Estimate:£3,008.74
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Estimate:
£3,008.74
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