Desk c. 1936

Fred Weiss made this painting of a desk, probably sometime in the 20th century. It's got this lovely, even light, and it seems like he mixed up a warm palette of browns and tans and then subtly varied them across the surface. I love to imagine the artist standing in front of the subject, brush in hand, thinking hard about how to translate a three-dimensional object onto a flat plane. Weiss captures the way light plays across the wood grain, giving the desk a real sense of depth and solidity. See how the paint is applied thinly and evenly, almost like a wash? It gives the painting a smooth, almost photographic quality, but with a handmade touch. It reminds me a bit of Fairfield Porter’s paintings of domestic interiors. Both artists are interested in capturing the quiet beauty of everyday life. And both seem to be asking questions about how we see, how we remember, and how we make sense of the world around us through the act of painting. Weiss made a painting so now we can think about desks, paintings, and our place in the world.