Siermotief met vier peulvruchten 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this pattern design with ink on paper. The way that the shapes are carefully drawn, yet remain quite simple gives me a sense of this as a functional artwork. It's not just for show. The ink is solid black, and the paper is a creamy off-white, which keeps it bold but also soft. I really like how the bean shapes have been transformed into something abstract. Like, how real does a bean need to be to still be a bean? The artist has captured the essence of the pod and made it into something new. Look at the little spirals that reach out from either side of the pods. They’re so playful! There’s something so satisfying about how it all balances out, the dark ink playing against the light background. Think about the work of someone like William Morris, a similar interest in pattern making, yet Cachet manages to make it his own. It reminds me that art is really about an ongoing conversation, a way of riffing on ideas and making them new.