Crucifix c. 1936

This is Geoffrey Holt’s watercolor drawing of a crucifix. It has a jeweled surface, a little bit gaudy, maybe. I'm just imagining Holt sitting there, carefully layering on these washes of grey for the metal and reds for the base. Did he feel like he was building something solid, or was he chasing the light? Maybe both, right? You can sense he’s really thinking about how light hits and reflects off these surfaces. The base is heavy, but the cross feels light. It’s as if it's emerging from the heavy base below. It reminds me a little of Elizabeth Murray, or maybe even some of Guston’s later stuff. There’s something so human about trying to capture an object like this. We’re all just trying to make sense of the world and each other. I feel the history of image-making and thought itself in this work.