Cast Iron Porch c. 1936

Gilbert Sackerman made this drawing of a cast iron porch sometime in his lifetime, with ink on paper. The linear structure of the porch, with all its ornate twirls, rendered in definitive lines, makes me wonder about the hand that guided the pen, and the patience involved. You can see the brick of the building sketched in behind the porch. I imagine Sackerman wanted to capture the contrast between natural and built environments. I wonder if he worked on site or from a photograph. Was he interested in the play of light and shadow? Maybe he was trying to capture a moment in time, the quiet beauty of a forgotten place. The drawing feels like a conversation between different eras and styles. I'm drawn into the details of the porch and how it merges with the simple architecture. It reminds me that artists are always in dialogue with one another across time, responding to each other’s work and pushing the boundaries of their own creativity.