Glass 1935 - 1942

S. Brodsky made this watercolor painting, "Glass," at an unknown date. Looking at this delicate vessel, cooly depicted, I imagine Brodsky carefully layering thin washes of pigment. What would it have been like to observe the light moving through this glass? I feel as though Brodsky is trying to capture something elusive, not just the object itself, but also the ephemeral qualities of light and transparency. The wispy greens and blues create a sense of depth and luminosity. Painters are always in conversation with one another, across time and space. I can see echoes of Giorgio Morandi's still lifes, with their muted colors and quiet contemplation of everyday objects. Brodsky’s study is more like a form of embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty. There are multiple ways of interpreting a single thing.