Chest of Drawers 1935 - 1942

Frances Lichten made this ‘Chest of Drawers’ sometime in her life, with what looks like gouache or watercolor on paper. I can imagine her standing at a table, carefully outlining each panel in green, before filling in the drawers with this earthy red. It's like she's channeling the spirit of those early American folk artists, you know? There's a real charm in the way she’s depicted those little birds and angels. They're not perfect, but that's what makes them so appealing. I wonder if she was smiling while painting them? Look at the way she’s balanced the composition. It's a riot of visual information, but she’s kept the overall shape very stable. It reminds me a bit of the way Hilma af Klint organized her later paintings. Each generation of artists inspires the next. Lichten continues this conversation and leaves an opening for artists to come. There's a beautiful, embodied sensibility here, isn’t there?