Staal met bedrukte zijde, dessin Blumenhorn 1911 - 1912

This is 'Staal met bedrukte zijde, dessin Blumenhorn', a printed silk design made at the Wiener Werkstätte. I wonder how these patterns came to be? I’m imagining the artist bent over a table, trying out shapes and colours; purple against green, or orange beside pink. The way the tendrils curl, reaching up and around, must have come from hours of patient experimenting to discover a rhythm. It’s like watching a dance being choreographed on paper. The colours are bold, but the shapes are playful, almost cartoonish. I like the tension, the way the artist is pushing and pulling between styles. It reminds me of Matisse's cut-outs. I wonder, were they looking at the same things? As an artist, you're always in conversation with the past, borrowing and riffing on the ideas of others. These designs are from another time and place, but they still speak to me, connecting me to a long lineage of artists who have tried to make sense of the world through colour and form.