Detail van een driepotige tafel naar ontwerp van Mathieu Lauweriks c. 1910

This is an undated photograph of a table leg designed by Mathieu Lauweriks, but whose photo we don’t know. Imagine being the sculptor, feeling the wood grain under your chisel, coaxing out the form from the material. I’m particularly drawn to the carved figure on the leg. It looks like the caryatids of ancient Greece. It is almost a painting in the round. What was the sculptor thinking, embedding the human form into this piece of furniture? There's a tension here, isn’t there, between the practical and the aesthetic? This photograph and the table seem caught between function and decoration. You can see the continuation of these ideas in modern furniture design, but this seems like a moment when something was emerging. It feels like a conversation that many artists have had over the years. How can art be integrated into everyday life? It's an invitation to imagine the possibilities, isn't it?