Ornament 1884 - 1952

This Ornament, by Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries, looks like it’s been carefully plotted on graph paper. The process of making it must have been quite meditative, filling in each little square one by one. I imagine Vries sitting at a desk, maybe with a cup of tea, deciding where each dark mark should go. What was he thinking about? Was he just enjoying the process, or was he trying to work something out? You can see each tiny mark, and together they build up to something bigger. It reminds me of the work of Agnes Martin, who also used grids to explore ideas about space and form. There is the same kind of attention to detail, the same slow and steady pace. Each little square is its own world. I wonder how we will ever know what other patterns the artist made, or could have made. It is like a seed of an idea that might keep growing and changing. This little sketch feels like part of a larger conversation.