Ontwerp voor een ring 1874 - 1932

This 'Ontwerp voor een ring' or 'Design for a ring' was made by Mathieu Lauweriks with ink and watercolour, but when? It's kind of hard to tell if the rings are floating on the page or pinned down in a strange tar pit. That background of black ink is opaque and dense. It is a pretty funny contrast to the grid of the paper. Those gridded lines seem to put it in some kind of design context, like a drawing for an instruction manual. The inky washes are laid down with a sense of urgency. But then, the rings are picked out with great precision. The level of detail in the rendering of the precious stones and settings is quite lovely. It reminds me a little of Hilma af Klint’s work, where you can see a similar interest in geometric form, and also this sense of a hidden meaning. With art, there are no answers, only better questions.