Sofa (Sheraton) 1935 - 1942

Simon Weiss’s ‘Sofa (Sheraton)’ looks like it was made with pencil and watercolor, and what strikes me is the slight remove or distance in the artist’s approach. You know, I feel like he's not trying to be flashy, just super clear. When you make a painting, it's like constructing a site for questioning. I try to imagine what it might have been like for Weiss, what he was thinking. Was he interested in interior design? In furniture? There’s a real care taken with the wooden frame, the gentle curves of the armrests, but also the plush look of the sofa itself. The thinness of the watercolor is interesting. Looking at this sofa, I think of other paintings, other sofas in art history, the way artists are always in conversation, riffing off each other, inspiring each other's creativity. It's like one big, ongoing party where everyone's sharing ideas, and the results are gloriously unpredictable.