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Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Contemporary Art / Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Turning Into Shadow
Turning Into Shadow holds a single figure in the moment before she disappears into her own darkness. A nude woman sits cross-legged, her torso twisted away from the viewer, one shoulder catching a hard, high light while the rest of her body surrenders to black. It is a portrait of withdrawal, not absence. The light falls from above, deliberate and theatrical, carving the curve of a spine and the line of a shoulder out of a background that gives nothing back. Fine grain and drifting dust catch the same beam, as if the air itself were part of the composition. The effect sits closer to an old master's canvas than a photograph, painterly, cinematic, quietly emotional. No paint. No print. No ink. The image is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, built through controlled surface damage rather than pigment. What looks soft in the fall of light across her back is, up close, a field of controlled scratches, each one a small act of removal rather than addition. The image is always present, in daylight or in shadow. Light does not create it, it sharpens it. Under direct light the scratches catch and reflect, the contrast deepens, and the figure gains weight and depth. It reads differently from every angle, without ever losing her. Turning Into Shadow is about the parts of ourselves we angle away from view. The twist of the body, the retreat from the light, the deep black that swallows everything but a single shoulder, together they read as a quiet study in privacy, in how much of a person can stay unseen even while standing right in front of you. From across a room the work reads as a single monumental gesture. Up close, it dissolves into a field of scratches, a surface that holds its shape only because of what has been taken away. Turning Into Shadow continues the Art with Scratch series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print. "She is not hiding. She is only turning toward the dark." 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:£2,999.92
To the auctionView all items fromCatawikiorContemporary Art
Estimate:
£2,999.92
1996 Australia 1/10 oz Gold Lunar Rat (Series I)
12/06/2017
£351.02
Est: £436.01
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