Windmill Counterbalance c. 1938

Wilbur M. Rice’s Windmill Counterbalance is made with humble materials, and you can tell that art-making was a process for him, not a product. The texture here is fascinating. The way he renders the rooster, it's almost like he's feeling it out, trying to capture its essence. I love how the dark, almost metallic hue gives it a sense of weight and presence. Look closely at the tail, those concentric lines are like a record of the rooster's movements, each stroke echoing the one before, building up this hypnotic pattern. It reminds me of Guston, how he embraced the clumsy, the awkward, finding beauty in the imperfect. Rice isn't afraid to let the material speak, to let the process be visible. It's in these imperfections that we find the heart of the work, the artist's hand, and the soul of the subject. It invites us to see the world with new eyes, to find beauty in the unexpected.