Salt Shaker c. 1939

Elisabeth Fulda’s Salt Shaker is rendered on paper with graphite and watercolor; it’s a simple gesture with extraordinary presence. I imagine Fulda at her table, quietly observing the complex refractions and subtle gradations of light playing across the surface of the glass. There’s such care taken in the drawing, and even though it’s a utilitarian object, it’s somehow imbued with a sense of value. Fulda isolates the salt shaker from its everyday context, giving us a chance to really see its elegant geometry. The cross-hatched pattern incised in the glass has a kind of shimmering visual effect—a bit like Agnes Martin’s delicate grid paintings—offering the viewer a calming meditative space to appreciate and reflect on the beauty of everyday things.