Sewing and Work Table 1935 - 1942

This is a drawing of a sewing table, made anonymously, and we don’t know when. The process is on full display here, in thin, insistent lines, almost vibrating on the page. The table and its mirror reflection are rendered in a pale brown wash, with details etched in a darker ink. It's like the artist is thinking out loud, letting us into their design process. Look at the legs, the way they taper and flare, and at the mirror, with its simple geometric pattern. Each mark feels deliberate, yet the overall effect is open, exploratory. I get a sense of the artist working slowly, refining and adjusting their ideas as they go. The compartmentalized drawer suggests the care taken in considering the design of everyday objects, the attention to detail that elevates something functional to a thing of beauty. This piece reminds me a little of the drawings of Ree Morton, another artist interested in the intersection of the handmade and the functional. Like Morton, the maker of this drawing invites us to consider art as a form of ongoing conversation and exchange.