Ornament met overlappende cirkels c. 1901

This is Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof’s “Ornament met overlappende cirkels,” made with graphite on paper. What’s cool about this piece is that it shows us the bones of the image, the way the artist worked through the composition and the underlying structure of the pattern. The circles and grid are lightly drawn, almost tentative. You can see the texture of the paper, the thinness of the lines. The artist isn't trying to hide anything. There's a realness, a simplicity to it. It reminds me that art is about process, about the decisions you make along the way. Look at the top right corner of the page: there is this sort of accidental doodle. It’s like he's reminding us that even within the most structured forms, there's always room for a little bit of spontaneity. It makes me think of Hilma af Klint and Agnes Martin, artists who used geometry and pattern to explore spiritual and emotional states. All art is a kind of conversation across time, right? Dijsselhof embraces the beauty of imperfection. It's about possibility, about the endless ways we can create and connect.