Stencilled Wall Decoration c. 1936

Ray Holden made this "Stencilled Wall Decoration" on a piece of paper of about 35 x 27 cm. Isn't it funny how something so simple, like these delicate curves and stencilled shapes in black and white against the pale beige, can be so evocative? I imagine Ray Holden carefully cutting out the stencils, maybe thinking about the walls they’d eventually adorn. You know, when I look at this, I feel Holden experimenting, trying out a motif, seeing how it might repeat, maybe dreaming of entire rooms covered in these designs. There’s a rhythm here, a kind of visual dance, that reminds me of Matisse’s paper cut-outs – that same sense of play and improvisation. It’s like Holden is having a conversation with the surface, each mark responding to the one before. I think, as artists, we're always in dialogue, not just with ourselves but with everyone who's ever picked up a brush or a stencil.