Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Alexander Rides the Dark

Out of absolute black, a horse rears and a rider turns his face to meet you. The finished work keeps only what matters: the arc of the horse's neck, the flare of a cloak caught mid air, the set of a young conqueror's jaw. Everything else, the ground, the distance, the century, has been let go into the dark. A field of fine scratches gathers where the light is strongest, so the mane, the raised hoof, the folds of the cape and the turned face read as thin veins of brightness against a void that never fully empties. Up close those veins dissolve into a field of individual marks, each one a small decision. Step back and they resolve into Alexander the Great astride a horse that refuses to stand still, caught at the instant before the charge. No paint. No print. No ink. The image is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, built by removal rather than addition, so the horse and its rider emerge the way memory does, incomplete, selective, already half returned to shadow. The image is always present. Light does not create it, it sharpens it. Under direct light the contrast deepens and the scratches catch and reflect, giving the rearing horse more weight and the rider's gaze more presence. It reads differently from different angles, without ever losing the image. Alexander belongs to a history of young men who refused the limits set for them, who rode out past the edge of the known world and kept going. This piece holds that restlessness in its composition, the horse still fighting gravity, the cloak still mid flight, nothing settled, nothing finished. It continues the Art with Scratch series 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 what remains of a legend once the armies and the empire are gone. This work is unique. "He is still riding, caught forever in the instant before the dark takes him back." 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. This listing contains AI-generated visualisations. Please refer to the original photographs to assess the actual condition of the object.

Utropspris:SEK 38,350.23

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