Twee decoratieve ontwerpen 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made these two decorative designs with pencil, pen and watercolor on tracing paper. The way he's layered the washes reminds me that art-making is a process. Look closely, and you'll notice the grid beneath the design, like the scaffolding of a building. There's a tension here between the rigidity of the grid and the fluid, organic forms it contains. The reddish-brown tones and soft grays create a muted, earthy palette that feels both calming and sophisticated, and that one dark spot, right at the top of the design on the right, feels like an anchor that stops the eye from wandering too far. This piece reminds me a little of the work of Hilma af Klint, not in terms of style, but in the way it combines decorative elements with a sense of underlying structure. Art is always in conversation with what came before, and what's happening now, and I think it's up to us to keep that conversation going.