Rocking Chair 1937

Curator: Well, I’m immediately struck by its simplicity. A single rocking chair, depicted with such delicate detail against a very neutral background… It almost feels meditative. Editor: This is Henry Murphy's "Rocking Chair," a watercolor and drawing from 1937. What looks simple initially really contains layers. Consider the rocking chair itself, it's a symbol, especially prevalent in American art. Curator: Absolutely. I mean, a rocking chair… It evokes ideas of domesticity, leisure, maybe even aging or contemplation. It's funny how much cultural baggage such a seemingly mundane object carries, isn't it? And in this rendering, Murphy strips everything else away. The absence of a figure sitting there. No sign of setting. No context except… a single chair. Editor: Precisely. The isolation draws our attention inward. What do rocking chairs even mean on a broader level? As vehicles of motion they carry emotional connotations tied to anticipation. Remember childhood when Grandma waited, watching the porch in her chair for us to come? The slight touches of watercolor— the hint of faded red along the top of the chair for instance—feel like little triggers for personal narrative and nostalgic remembering. Curator: And the artist’s chosen medium of watercolor, combined with detailed drawing is also critical to our appreciation. There is an inherently fragile nature to the paper and paint, echoing the ephemeral nature of memory itself. Murphy captured not only the form of this simple furnishing, but he also conveyed an emotional state, accessible precisely because it remains unspoken. Editor: It becomes universal through its particularity, doesn’t it? In depicting this "Rocking Chair" Murphy touches a very fundamental question: who hasn’t waited or wished to slow time with just the slightest push? It gives material shape to the abstract concepts. Curator: That interplay between absence and presence, solidity and transparency, is what keeps me thinking about it. I find it oddly moving. Editor: A fitting synthesis of inner feeling with the things that ground our everyday experience.