Desk 1935 - 1942

Aaron Dermansky’s watercolour painting captures a desk; two actually, rendered with a tender kind of attentiveness. I can imagine Dermansky, born in the 19th century, patiently layering washes of thin pigment to mimic the wood’s grain and the gleam of the brass fittings. There’s this one section that really gets me: the fold-out section of the first desk. It's like the painting is thinking through the desk, piece by piece. The bottom desk is red, a chest of drawers, and feels solid. By contrast, the top desk is light grey, with small and delicate shelves. It’s like Dermansky is talking about how we learn to work and how we build knowledge by putting them on top of each other. The top desk is made from the bottom one. Dermansky’s quiet study of furniture reminds us how much we, as artists and humans, build upon the work of others, each idea and mark informed by a history of making and seeing.