Fragment van een ornamenteel kader 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this fragment of an ornamental frame with graphite on paper. The precision of his curved lines and evenly spaced circles almost feels machine-made, but the slight variations give it away as the product of a human hand. It reminds me that even seemingly rigid structures are made of tiny, imperfect gestures. Look at the way the graphite interacts with the paper’s surface: the tooth of the paper grabs the graphite, creating a soft, almost fuzzy texture. The repeated loops and circles create a rhythm, like a visual mantra. Each form is a cell in a larger organism, a building block in a grander architectural vision. It makes me think of Hilma af Klint, who also combined organic forms with geometric structures to make her paintings. Both artists remind us that the world is both chaotic and orderly, structured and free. Art lets us explore the tension between the two.