Menu voor de maaltijd in het Carlton Hotel bij de opening van de Nieuwe Sluis te IJmuiden before 1934

This is a menu for a meal, made in 1930 in the Netherlands, most likely printed using a letterpress. I love that the maker is anonymous – or, more likely, one of many. All those people who collaborate to make an image or object! Anyway, the color palette is so limited: creams, reds, browns. The shapes are blocks and bars. But there’s also this heraldic crest, these lions balancing a shield, where everything is reduced to its most minimal form. I’d love to see these forms translated into a painting, into something less functional. Look at the way the text is stacked, justified, how those thick bars act like punctuation. In a way, this is all about the material aspects of paper, and ink, and the careful placement of images and words. I always think about El Lissitzky when I see things like this – and of course, the whole history of the Bauhaus. But, really, this menu is a reminder that art isn’t just high art. It’s an ongoing conversation, happening everywhere, all the time.