Ontwerp voor een tapijt met Oosters patroon 1920 - 1930

Dirk Verstraten made this carpet design with pencil, pen and watercolour on paper. The marks sit in a grid, neat and regular, it reminds me of the way we build up images on a screen, each little pixel playing its part in the bigger picture. The palette is constrained, made up of muted reds, blues, and purples, with the odd dab of yellow, the surface of the paper is visible through the washes of colour. A lot of care has gone into the composition, the lines are clean and precise. It’s so tightly controlled, yet it hints at something wilder. See how the pixelated edges make a jagged silhouette against the grid, the careful symmetry of the composition is offset by the asymmetry of the marks. It reminds me of a smaller scale, more decorative version of Hilma af Klint’s early diagrammatic paintings. Both artists invite us to think about the nature of pattern, structure, and repetition.