Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Crown Cut From Midnight

Crown Cut From Midnight holds a single Rolex dial at the edge of recognition. The crown and the word ROLEX sit as dark shapes inside a field of fine scratches that climbs toward the light, the hour markers catch along the rim, and a curve of the bezel glows above like a held breath. Nothing here is printed. No paint. No print. No ink. The image is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, a field of individual marks that reads as a dial from across the room and dissolves into pure abrasion up close. 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 the contrast deepens, while the crown and the lettering stay cut quietly into the dark, untouched by the same light that lifts everything around them. Crown Cut From Midnight 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 what we are really buying when we choose the sign over the thing it sits on. The crown has marked Rolex since 1925, a small claim of authorship that grew into one of the most recognised signs in the world. Stripped of colour, of steel and leather, of the window it usually sits behind, what remains is pure form, five points and an orb, held above a name and a horizon of hour markers. There is admiration here for the precision of that shape, and a quiet smile at how much of our wanting it has learned to carry. From across a room the dial reads whole, a pale mark adrift in black. Close in, it breaks apart into a field of fine scratches with no single mark holding more weight than the next, proof that the image was taken away rather than laid down. It leaves one question sitting in the dark beside the crown: which sign would you still want to wear if no one else could read it. This is an independent artwork by Tijs Dragtsma, not made, licensed or endorsed by Rolex. "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.

Estimation:€3,500

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