Basket, Table, Door, Window, Mirror, Rug #43 1975

Richard Artschwager made this drawing, Basket, Table, Door, Window, Mirror, Rug #43, with ink on paper. It's a collection of things, a kind of still life exploded and reassembled with a hard, clean line. I can imagine Artschwager thinking about how to make the familiar strange, turning everyday objects into something almost architectural. There's something so methodical about the drawing, each line precise, like he’s mapping out an idea in space. I see a kinship between his practice and other artists like, say, Claes Oldenburg, who also played with scale and form to make us rethink the objects around us. But Artschwager is all his own, pushing the boundaries between art and object. And with this drawing, he invites us to see the world in a new, slightly off-kilter way.