Coverlet c. 1940

Cornelius Christoffels made this coverlet, sometime before 1960, with what looks like watercolor or gouache on paper. The pattern is a tight grid, almost like a digitized version of a textile. The way Christoffels builds up the geometric forms is fascinating: each square is actually made of tiny little strokes, and the process of their assembly is what gives the image its overall texture. Look at the way the blue squares sit against the white, and how these colours vibrate. I almost get the impression that this could have been a study for a larger piece. The entire image is built from such small marks that it's easy to imagine Christoffels working away at this for days, maybe even weeks. It reminds me of the work of Agnes Martin, in the way that she repeated marks in such a way to create an image that’s bigger than the sum of its parts. Both artists create works where the labor of making is so apparent and so important. Ultimately, art is about the process.