Ontwerp voor raam in het Noordertransept in de Dom te Utrecht c. 1934

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this design for a window in the early 20th century. It’s all about the dance of light and dark, a symphony of blue, yellow, and red tones. I can almost feel the artist at work here, smudging and layering the pigment. Do you see how the colours build up to create these jewel-like shapes? The thick black lines feel like a stained-glass window, but rendered with the softness of chalk. I wonder what he was thinking as he put the marks down. There’s a dialogue happening in the forms, between abstraction and figuration, representation and pure sensation. He’s talking to other artists, all the way back to the Renaissance, while pushing forward into something new. Ultimately, this window design, like all great art, becomes a mirror reflecting our own experiences back at us.