Vaas met decoratie van lelie-achtige bloem 1902

This vase with lily-like flowers was made by N.V. Haagsche Plateelfabriek Rozenburg, and the making of these kinds of objects is about a process, not so different from painting in some ways. Looking at this piece, what strikes me first is the surface. It is not smooth, but textured, which gives it a tactile quality, almost like a canvas. The colours are muted, but rich, and the balance between the floral decoration and background. Look at how this olive background colour is built up from hundreds of tiny marks – it’s this kind of dedication that gives the piece its rhythm. The way those blue flowers just sit at the top of the vase, too, like a little crown, or an afterthought. As if they just landed there. You know, these forms remind me a little of Kandinsky, with their looseness, their freedom. It shows how artists are always in conversation with each other, whether they know it or not. And art is not about answers, but about opening up new ways of seeing.