Ornamenten 1874 - 1945

Curator: This unassuming sketchbook page titled "Ornamenten," likely created between 1874 and 1945 by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, offers us a glimpse into the artist’s creative process. Editor: It feels rather tentative, doesn't it? The gray pencil lines give it a feeling of incompleteness, of thoughts still in formation. I appreciate how the unfinished lines suggest movement and dynamism, as if the artist is sketching something that won’t stay still. Curator: Indeed. It’s quite interesting how Cachet uses line here. The repeated shapes, the embryonic forms laid over a subtle grid – we see the basic elements of design laid bare, revealing how abstraction arises from systematization. Editor: I see something quite primordial here, in the iterative symbols that seem like a lost language, a private alphabet, like an alchemist searching for some base essence, or perhaps something occult, from a nearly-forgotten world. It almost makes you wonder, could these abstract forms contain hidden messages? Are they meant to trigger subconscious connections to lost traditions? Curator: Perhaps. It is striking how, even in its incompleteness, there’s a powerful sense of order and structure. The tension arises from the geometric versus the organic – the curves are very sensuous despite their cold, calculating construction, if I may suggest. Editor: Yes! There is something deeply alluring in those undulating curves that hints to feminine sacred icons… the power of design comes to the fore. How shapes trigger meaning beyond what’s obviously visible. It also touches on the dialogue between intention and subconscious, what symbols arise through process of design. It reflects the human compulsion for structure. Curator: What’s more compelling here, the act of creation or the final intention, to arrive at ornament? We are witnesses to both, in its raw state. Editor: We certainly are, offering an open window into both, the artist's process and the broader dance between symbols, tradition, and perception. Curator: Well said. Cachet's work presents not just design, but a whole rich language awaiting decipherment.