Ontwerp voor de schutbladen van een portefeuille 1884 - 1952

This is Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries’s design for the endpapers of a portfolio. Look at those ochre lines so elegantly delineating space on the page. I imagine the artist carefully preparing his drawing, thinking, what is the essence of a space? I love how each line is both independent and connected, working in harmony to form a cohesive design. There is a repetitive, but not quite symmetrical aspect to it. The eye jumps around, but it is always within the framework, always going back to the horizontal. I can see the hand of the artist in each choice, each mark. The flowers, squares and curvilinear shapes are so perfectly balanced, like a Mondrian with feeling. In my own painting process I often look back to the Dutch masters. There’s a sense of quiet confidence that is a guiding light. The act of creation, the space of making, becomes a site of inquiry, for both the artist and the viewer, and then the conversation begins.