Vogeesen=Thal, Elsaß, Lothringen und Rhein=Pfaltz 1916

Adolf Wölfli made this cosmologically scaled drawing with colored pencil, layering a range of obsessive marks in an almost architectural build. The surface of this work is densely packed, there are lots of small details. The colors are quite muted, though, and the repetitive lines create a kind of hypnotic rhythm. Look at the way Wölfli uses the shapes, each one precisely drawn yet forming part of this immense, overall pattern. There's a tension between order and chaos, restriction and freedom, that really gets to me. It makes me think a bit about Alfred Jensen, another artist who used pattern and repetition to explore complex systems of thought. Both artists invite us to consider the world as a vast, interconnected web of ideas, where everything is related to everything else. And maybe that's what art is all about, finding those connections, embracing the endless possibilities of interpretation.