Handwoven Coverlet c. 1937

This red and beige handwoven coverlet was made by Cornelius Christoffels. The whole thing is a grid, a map, and a conversation. I imagine Christoffels hunched over the material, pushing the needle through, marking each intersection with red thread like a kind of pointillist painting. It's like he's building something solid out of small gestures, each stitch a commitment, a tiny decision in a larger pattern. Maybe he was thinking about nature, but filtering it through geometry. The curves of the leaves and flowers softened by the straight lines that construct them. And look at that red! How it pops against the beige. It’s not just a color choice; it’s a statement, a kind of joyful noise, an assertion of warmth against the cool linen. You get the feeling he enjoyed making it. I think he might have liked Klee. It is like the weaving is a way of thinking. The weaving is the thought itself.