Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - The Prancing Horse in Silence

The Prancing Horse in Silence holds a steering wheel at the centre of the frame, seen straight on, the way a driver would see it a moment before the engine turns over. The dials sit soft and pale behind the rim, the three spokes converge toward the middle, and there, raised on its small round medallion, the famous horse rears on its hind legs, dark against a disc of light. No paint. No print. No ink. The image is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, a field of individual marks that sit as light on deep black. The leather of the rim, the grain of the dashboard, the true size of the wheel, none of that survives the crossing; what remains is a circle, a cross of spokes, and a scatter of small glowing instruments that still seem to be reading something, somewhere, in the dark. The image is always present, it does not wait for a lamp to find it. Light does not create the image, it sharpens it, so under a raking light the scratches catch and reflect, the rim tightens into a hard ring and the dial faces lift free of the void behind them. It reads differently from different angles, without ever losing the horse at its centre. Most marks in this series are carried to be seen by other people, a monogram on a trunk, a crown on a dial, worn so a room will notice. The wheel is the opposite kind of status symbol. It faces one person only, present at the exact point where a hand rests and a car is told what to do. Enlarged on a gallery wall, that private badge becomes the one legible thing left in an otherwise unlit cabin. The horse itself began as another man's mark before it was Ferrari's: it flew on the fuselage of a First World War fighter pilot, Francesco Baracca, and was given to Enzo Ferrari afterwards, by Baracca's mother, as a sign she hoped would carry the same fortune onto the road. The Prancing Horse in Silence belongs to Objects of Desire, 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 asking who we trust once no one else is left to see the sign we chose. This work is an independent artwork by Tijs Dragtsma, not made, licensed or endorsed by Ferrari. It takes the horse seriously as a shape and a story, not as a commission from the house that owns it. Which emblem would you still want under your own hand, if no one ever climbed in beside you to see it. "A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure." 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.

Estimate:£2,929.68

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