Rol met paars lint met één gerafelde zijde en drie witte horizontale strepen c. 1935

This roll of purple ribbon with white stripes and a frayed edge by Gustav Schnitzler, now housed at the Rijksmuseum, is like a little sculpture, right? You can imagine the artist carefully winding it, the colour purple slowly building up, stripe by stripe. I wonder what Schnitzler was thinking as he made this ribbon? Was it meant for a special occasion, or was it a regular ribbon used for everyday adornments? The material itself—the way the ribbon is pressed together, the texture of the frayed edge, the colour purple—all these elements shape our experience. It is a physical object and, in some ways, the careful winding of it mimics mark-making in painting. I keep thinking of the work of Agnes Martin because of the lines. But where Martin's paintings are large, this is small and intimate. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time. This piece embraces simplicity and functionality, allowing for multiple interpretations beyond its fixed purpose.