Silver Teapot c. 1936

Vincent Carano drew this Silver Teapot, with pencil, at an unknown date. What strikes me is the range of grays he coaxes from the pencil and the energy that results from it! You can feel the artist making decisions, changing his mind. Look at the vertical strokes that form the body of the pot, giving it volume and a kind of shimmer. They remind me of the Abstract Expressionist painter Agnes Martin’s subtle pencil lines, except here, the aim isn’t so much transcendence as description. The details – the pineapple on top, the heraldic shield, the looping handle – these are described with a real sense of delight in the activity of looking and then recording what's been seen. And yet, because it’s a drawing and not the thing itself, it remains elusive, open to interpretation. The source is a common object, but the result is something special and strange. It reminds me that art is not just about the reproduction of reality, but about how we see and feel the world.