Fragment van een ontwerp voor een schotel van aardewerk genaamd Strijd 1919

Curator: Alright, let's dive into this intriguing sketch. What we have here is "Fragment van een ontwerp voor een schotel van aardewerk genaamd Strijd," or "Fragment of a design for an earthenware dish called Struggle," created in 1919 by Theo Colenbrander. It’s a pencil drawing on paper. Editor: Struggle! The title feels grand for such a delicate thing. It looks almost like a glimpse into someone’s subconscious— a chaotic beauty caught in pencil strokes. Curator: Absolutely. Colenbrander, while known for his decorative ceramics, clearly used drawing as a space for exploring ideas, pushing boundaries. It feels very much like an idea generation sketch or personal sketchbook entry. You get that immediate sense of a fleeting idea, don’t you think? Editor: Totally, like a thought just barely caught before it vanished. The light pencil work gives it an ethereal quality, and I notice the geometric shapes— are they clashing? Supporting each other? It’s that very ambiguity that pulls me in. A real contrast to his usually bolder ceramic designs. Curator: The inscription "middle circle" hints at a planned composition and scale, a dish, to serve something or someone. Consider also the historical moment: 1919. Post World War I. A world reshaped, redefined. “Struggle” becomes an emotionally loaded theme reflecting society searching for order after turmoil. Editor: I like that a lot, this reading that is a search for structure when all that’s available is brokenness. In this context, his return to geometric form is almost hopeful! I like too that even with the geometric form it keeps this sketchy intimate feel – like we are peeking over Colenbrander's shoulder while he is wrestling with ideas, feelings and intentions. Curator: It makes you wonder what "Struggle" meant to Colenbrander, beyond just an abstract idea. Personal struggles, societal anxieties – were they one and the same? We see how these pieces resonate in various ways, long past their moment of creation, speaking to this underlying current running through human experience. Editor: Well said, the dish seems like something I should spend more time observing.