Ornamenten c. 1901

Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof created this sketch titled Ornamenten, likely on paper, at an unknown date. Here, line becomes a kind of dance. Look at how the marks are made, not precious, more like thinking out loud. This piece feels like a reminder that art is first and foremost a process. The marks are quite clear. You can see the pressure and the speed, it's so intimate, like eavesdropping on the artist’s thoughts. Notice the almost cartoonish curlicues and swirls. They give the piece a playful, lighthearted quality. The three lines trailing down from the top, these almost feel like an Alexander Calder mobile. Dijsselhof, like Calder, seems to embrace spontaneity and chance. It’s like they both understood art as a form of open-ended experimentation. And, of course, this openness is what makes art so alive, so capable of endless reinvention.