Fles, peervormig, versierd met geometrisch ornament in geel, bruin en zwart. c. 1910

This vase was made by Tegel- en Fayencefabriek Amphora and is decorated with a geometric ornament in yellow, brown, and black. The Amphora factory probably had many artists working there, and I imagine that this vase came into being through discussion, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. It’s hard not to sympathize with these makers and imagine what it might have been like to create this object. What might they have been thinking when they made it? I can imagine them debating whether to make the painted lines thin or thick, or how to get the paint just right. The long brushstrokes communicate a feeling of order and rhythm, like musical notes on a page. It reminds me of other ceramics I’ve seen with similar geometric patterns; artists are always in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting, like ceramics, is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.