Ornamenten met figuren en dieren c. 1928

Curator: This intriguing work, held here at the Rijksmuseum, is entitled "Ornamenten met figuren en dieren," created around 1928 by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, rendered in pencil on paper. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: It has an enigmatic air to me, this sketch, like rifling through a mystic's journal or a linguist's preparatory scribbles before conceiving of an alphabet. The figures have the spirit of something alive despite their sketch-like quality. Curator: Note how Cachet deployed pencil to delineate these various motifs. The stark linearity emphasizes the almost primal geometry at play. Observe the calculated arrangement of form, counter-form, line weight, and the raw texture of the paper itself; pure formal devices yielding complex results. Editor: True, but it goes further, doesn’t it? The animal figures suggest deeper meanings. Look at those birds—are they swans?—they represent fidelity. Those geometric forms resemble building blocks, and could indicate the basis for an artistic structure; foundations of ideas. Curator: Building on your observation, it also brings into sharp focus the artist’s methodology. This is a preparatory document where we discern structure in nascent manifestation. The rough quality reinforces the immediacy of the design. Editor: I also can't dismiss the hand-lettering intermingling within, almost as if Cachet layered linguistic meaning into the images, forming an intriguing tapestry of symbols and semiotics. It hints that symbols in themselves are constructed like language. Curator: That said, those symbols are embedded within a deliberately unrefined technique, and through its very simplicity, the artist draws attention to the power of elemental shapes. What impact does it hold on you as a viewer? Editor: The overall effect resonates on two registers, a harmony between chaos and deliberate meaning-making, resulting in a quiet harmony—one which echoes Cachet’s sensitivity to form and, possibly, a window into his deepest creative motives. Curator: A fair point indeed; to move back to a more concrete register, analyzing this "Ornamenten met figuren en dieren," we’re witnessing Cachet's intellectual and physical interaction as a practitioner through elemental geometries on display, as he attempts to compose a design's architecture. Editor: Precisely, so while seemingly modest at first glance, this work provides a keyhole glimpse into the nature of symbolism and creation itself.