Ontwerp voor raam in het Amsterdams Lyceum 1922

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this design for a window in the Amsterdam Lyceum with chalk and graphite, though when exactly, we don’t know. The design has a real graphic quality to it, like the artist is thinking through the process of building the image out of constituent parts, a bit like making a collage. The texture of the chalk and graphite are a joy, aren’t they? See how the different colours are layered, with the strokes running in different directions? Look at the figure’s arm, holding the upright beam, rendered with a kind of forceful geometry that reminds me of Fernand Léger, where human forms are presented as machinic. And then look at the face, which has a completely different feel to it, more classical and idealised. There’s a tension between these two approaches, but it feels generative to me, like the artist is working between different modes of seeing and representing the world. That feels right for a design to be installed in a school – an institution dedicated to opening up new ways of thinking!