Armchair c. 1936

Louis Annino’s ‘Armchair’ emerges in shades of charcoal on a tan ground. It has the precision of technical drawing with a touch of dream logic. The image shows what the artist sees, but you know, it's also about the process of seeing itself. I’m struck by the artist’s need to really look, to scrutinize the shapes and volume with charcoal. The chair looms, but it also invites. It makes me think about what Annino was thinking when he made it, what he wanted to convey. Did he just want to copy the chair? I doubt it. I see his desire to show the dark and light parts, as well as the texture and the presence of this object. The chair almost feels like a portrait of a person. Like how we want to be seen, in all our complexity! The piece evokes the intimate relationship between artists across time. It’s like they are whispering to one another across decades, inspiring new ways of seeing, new possibilities. Painting is just that, embodied expression, open to multiple interpretations and meanings.