Geschilderd plafond in Noordeinde 140 te Den Haag 1912

This painted ceiling in Noordeinde, The Hague, probably wasn't signed, which makes you think about the many, many hands that go into making art, visible and invisible, literally and metaphorically. The painter has worked with light and shadow, a kind of grisaille effect, to give the impression of depth and three-dimensionality. What I find so compelling about this fragment is the way it embraces the inevitable wear and tear of time. The cracks, the discolouration—they're not imperfections, but part of its story. There’s one particular spot, near the apex of the arch, where the paint has almost completely faded, revealing the underlayers. I love how the ornamentation and figuration seem to emerge from the very architecture of the room. It reminds me a little of Tiepolo, but with a kind of humble, domestic sensibility. Art is just an ongoing conversation, isn't it? A conversation between artists, between generations, between the past and the present, and it's all okay to have ambiguity.