Iron Sole c. 1940

Rocco Navigato made this drawing, Iron Sole, with some kind of pen or pencil, it seems. It's all about the sole of a shoe, and it's like, what is it doing there, floating on the page? The mark-making is so precise, the lines are careful and attentive, it's amazing. The color palette here is really muted, all these earthy browns and grays, and it makes you think about the material of the sole, how tough and worn it must be. There's a real tension between the flat, almost clinical way the object is presented, and the way you can feel the weight and texture of the sole through the drawing. See that little white mark there, near the heel? It's like a tiny explosion, a moment of light and space that breaks up the solid form of the sole, and it kinda wakes you up to the piece as a whole. It kinda makes me think of Giorgio Morandi, in the way he isolates everyday objects and makes them feel monumental and strange. Art is just this ongoing conversation, each artist picking up where the last one left off.