Mirror c. 1936

Fred Weiss made this watercolor of a mirror some time in the 20th century; you can see the marks of the brush, the process of building up layers of colour in the frame and the soft, transparent strokes he used to depict the glass. The texture of the paper creates a kind of resistance to the wash of the paint, so the marks look dry and chalky in places. Look closely, and you can see how the artist has used very diluted washes for the blue of the mirror itself, applying the colour in multiple layers to give it depth and luminosity. The frame is a dark red-brown, but in some areas, the paint is so thin you can see the white of the paper coming through, giving it a kind of glow. This feels a little like an Agnes Martin, in its simplicity and understated beauty. Both artists use subtle color and a pared-down aesthetic to create works that are both visually appealing and conceptually rich. They remind us that art doesn't need to be loud or complicated to be meaningful.