Compote 1936

John Dana made this drawing of a compote in April 1936. I can imagine him sitting at a table carefully observing the way the light plays on the glass. Look at the subtle gradations of tone and color used to capture its transparency. It’s a kind of meditation in gray, where the faintest graphite line has so much to say. I wonder if he made this drawing to document the object or to understand it better, maybe even appreciate it more. It reminds me that drawing can be a form of slow seeing, a way of paying attention to the world around us. There is a similar approach to the work of Giorgio Morandi, who also found endless inspiration in the simple forms of everyday objects. Each of these painters has shown me that by really looking at something, and then finding a way to record it through their art, that they are always in an ongoing conversation with those who came before them.