Ontwerp voor een ring c. 1874 - 1932

This is Mathieu Lauweriks’ ‘Ontwerp voor een ring’, a design for a ring, made with pen and ink on paper. What strikes me about this piece is its simplicity. It’s a functional drawing, made to communicate an idea, but there's a charm in the way the artist has used line to render the forms and give them volume. The colour palette is minimal; yellow for gold, blue for sapphire, with a gridded background. The lines are precise, but there's an informality, a sketchiness to the whole thing. It feels immediate, like a thought captured on paper. I keep coming back to the bottom right ring design. I love the way the gold setting envelops the stones, creating a kind of protective embrace. It speaks to the way that art, like jewellery, can be both beautiful and deeply personal, holding precious memories and emotions. There’s something of the influence of someone like Gustav Klimt in the way the gold shimmers on the page. And, like Klimt, Lauweriks reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation, a constant reimagining of forms and ideas.