Kalenderblad voor september tot en met december 1924 1923

Curator: Leo Visser created this calendar page, "Kalenderblad voor september tot en met december 1924," a mixed-media piece from around 1923 using drawing, collage and print. What’s your initial take? Editor: Well, it strikes me as handmade and somewhat austere, yet also fanciful. I notice the paper base right away, but also the density of linework. There's a real tactile quality, contrasting the drawn bird and the calendar grid. It feels both utilitarian and artisanal, like a craft project. Curator: Yes, there's a delightful tension there. The soaring bird evokes freedom and nature, set against the grid of months. Birds, traditionally, are messengers, or symbolize the soul's journey. Here, it is positioned over what seems to be a town. What could that suggest? Editor: Maybe a desire to break free from the confines of urban life, represented by the rigid structure of the calendar? The hand-drawn quality suggests someone consciously rejecting mass production in favor of something unique. The means of its making are important. This would be an object of careful daily use. Curator: The mixed mediums enhance that interpretation, certainly. There’s something primal in the almost naif approach and the presence of a skyline below the bird is an established pattern for urban iconography—with our winged visitor above. It's about looking to new possibilities while remaining in known territory. Editor: It’s a fascinating juxtaposition, then. It uses found materials, and repurposes existing print techniques in this period after the First World War. Curator: True, and calendars are inherently tied to cultural events and specific rituals. I see a longing for a time yet to come, a potential future soaring into view even while remembering the passage of each individual day. Editor: Seeing it as an artefact connects the material object with its cultural role, it does feel embedded in a specific social moment, like it could become part of people’s lives. It could function in that liminal space of memory. I like how it reframes that connection between the viewer and its immediate cultural setting.