Coverlet (Section) c. 1937

This is a section of a coverlet made by Cornelius Christoffels, and you can see how the artist must have been deeply invested in the process, creating it line by line. I can imagine Christoffels at the loom, patiently weaving, one thread at a time, into those blues and reds. It’s like he’s building a whole world with just these colours, these threads. The repetitive gestures become almost meditative; the rhythm of the weaving is like a visual language, a code being carefully constructed. Each stitch, each knot is a tiny decision, adding up to the overall pattern. The texture, the way the colours interact, it all gives a feeling of warmth, of home. This reminds me a bit of Anni Albers’ work at the Bauhaus; she also explored the language of weaving. It also speaks to the long history of artists and craftspeople finding new forms of expression through traditional techniques. It’s about how something simple, like weaving, can become a site for endless creativity and inquiry.