Bandontwerp voor een album voor Prof. Willem Stoeder 1902

Curator: Let’s turn our attention now to Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries' "Bandontwerp voor een album voor Prof. Willem Stoeder," created around 1902. It's a design on paper, a drawing really, intended as a book cover. What strikes you when you first see it? Editor: You know, it's whispering elegance to me, almost hauntingly subdued. The palette, or rather the lack of vibrant colour, paired with those geometric patterns gives me the sense that the work exists in the meeting place of antiquity and modernity. The shapes and their placements make my mind calm and still. Is that just me? Curator: Not at all. Its Art Nouveau roots are clear in the stylized floral motifs and the decorative use of line, though here the line is almost mathematical. The symmetry and repetition reflect a very conscious structuring, each element carefully placed to create an overall harmonious design, in keeping with the Art Nouveau desire to turn useful objects into works of art. The composition has the clarity that semiotics is fascinated by—the clear central emblem, with everything supporting it. Editor: Oh, "semiotics," here we go. What I like is how restrained it is. Today's album art is all bombast and LOOK AT ME energy. This has a quiet confidence, like it trusts you to come closer, to discover the details. The simplicity really draws your eye to that enigmatic central emblem. Does it mean anything specific or is it purely decorative? Curator: We cannot say with certainty. There are some heraldic aspects with the curves and stylized crown-like image. Perhaps, we can see the album this drawing adorns and have greater understanding about the importance of the central emblem and the patterns of geometric shapes as an index. We are also very aware that art does not need to give definite answers and can give cause for reflective interpretation. Editor: Makes you want to find the music hidden inside, doesn’t it? This work speaks to the power of the understated. Its elegance and symmetry evoke a feeling of peace and centeredness. The golden hues also call to mind hidden treasures. Curator: Indeed. Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries manages to synthesise these qualities within a deceptively simple structure. The visual elements are highly distilled to promote the core meaning through geometry and symbolic expression. Editor: So true, there is such balance. This artwork made me see symmetry in new ways.