Decoratieve patronen c. 1916 - 1945

This work, Decoratieve patronen, is a drawing by Reijer Stolk, and it feels like a peek into the artist’s mind, a raw outpouring of ideas. The marks are immediate, unpretentious. It feels more about the process of thinking than the final product. Looking at the paper, you can see the ghost of ideas forming and reforming. There's a list of numbered patterns with tiny sketches. I love the doodle of a bell-shaped structure on the left – it’s so tentative, like a thought barely taking shape. Notice the single blotch of dark ink at the top, an accident maybe, or perhaps a deliberate disruption, a reminder of the unpredictable nature of creating. Stolk’s patterns remind me a bit of Hilma af Klint’s notebooks, where the act of recording and classifying becomes a kind of art in itself. It’s this ongoing conversation with other artists that makes art so alive. Ultimately, it’s not about finding a single, correct interpretation, but embracing the multiple possibilities.