Advertentie van Karel de Bazel en Mathieu Lauweriks 1896 - 1935

This poster, made by Mathieu Lauweriks, is an advertisement for lectures at the Theosophical Society in Amsterdam. Imagine Lauweriks carving away at the block, the stark black ink against the paper, the precise lines and geometric patterns creating this sense of order and spirituality. It’s all so deliberate, so thought-out. The lettering itself becomes an almost architectural element, like he's building a structure of words. I keep thinking about this contrast between the material act of carving, which is physical and grounded, and the ethereal subject matter of the lectures. It's like Lauweriks is trying to make the invisible visible, giving form to these abstract ideas through the very concrete act of printmaking. What must it have been like to be him? As an artist looking back, it feels like a conversation, a passing of ideas through time.