Pocket Flask c. 1941

Chris Makrenos made this beautiful object, Pocket Flask, with some kind of paint on paper. The brown is the hero here. It’s not just brown, it’s all the browns, like earth, wood, and that comforting feeling of holding something familiar. You can see the artist worked it, they layered it, pushed it around. The paint is soft but precise, and this gives it this real, solid form, a kind of geometric pattern, like a pineapple, or even a little hand grenade! Look at the texture around the middle. It’s this mix of light and dark, each plane catching the light in a slightly different way. It gives the flask such a sense of depth, and I want to pick it up. For me, this Pocket Flask has a kind of quiet confidence, like Giorgio Morandi, but it could just as easily have come from Forrest Bess. It speaks of simple pleasures and enduring forms, but what do I know? Art’s not about answers; it’s about keeping the conversation going.