Floraal ornament 1921

Léon-Louis Chapon created this floral ornament – though there’s no date for us to know when. I can feel a sense of order emerging through careful labor. The high-contrast black and white is lovely. It makes me wonder: what’s the difference between decoration and a painting? Is it the intention, or is it the all-overness, the even distribution of elements across the entire surface? This could be wallpaper, but I want to think of it as more. The artist wants to reach out and connect, and this patterned surface offers a way in. It’s a meditation on form and repetition, with swirling shapes that echo and invert, creating a rhythmic visual field. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. Chapon perhaps was thinking of William Morris. And I think of both of them when I am in the studio.