Silver Candlestick 1935 - 1942

Leo Drozdoff made this drawing of a silver candlestick at some unknown date, with what looks like pencil on paper. The paper is almost as interesting as the drawing itself, tan with age, and stained around the edges, like a memory. Drozdoff’s delicate pencil rendering, with its subtle gradations of tone, turns the solid metal into something ethereal, almost ghostly. Look at the base, how the light seems to glow from within. The sharp lines that define its stepped form are softened by the gentle shading, creating an object that is both present and absent, solid and dissolving. It reminds me of some of the still life drawings of Giorgio Morandi, who could turn a humble bottle into a monument of quiet contemplation. Both artists share a sensitivity to the subtle nuances of light and form, transforming the everyday into something extraordinary. Like Morandi, Drozdoff seems to suggest that the true subject of art is not the object itself, but the act of seeing.