Decoratief ontwerp 1874 - 1945

This ‘Decoratief ontwerp’ was made by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, at an unknown date, using pencil on paper. I like seeing the bones of a design. There’s something honest about the sketch marks, the pentimento of earlier ideas, still visible beneath the final composition. You can see how the artist worked through the design. The surface is relatively flat, no thick impasto here, but the pencil itself has a kind of physicality. I’m drawn to the vertical central axis, bisecting the composition. You can see how this functions as a kind of armature, around which other forms are arranged. The cross-hatching adds depth and volume. I’m reminded of Hilma af Klint’s preparatory drawings, or even some of Agnes Martin’s more geometric compositions. Both invite us to see art as a process of discovery, rather than a declaration of fixed truths. There’s a real sense of ambiguity here; a feeling that the work is still in conversation with itself.