Corner Cupboard c. 1937

This "Corner Cupboard" was made with graphite on paper by George Fairbanks. The drafting lines are so precise, but there’s something really lovely about the imperfect rendering. Like a memory of a thing rather than the thing itself. It looks like a stage set for a play that never was! I love how the surface is so smooth, the lines all so crisp, but when you zoom in you can see the imperfections in the paper and the varying pressure of the pencil on the page. The dimensions jotted down with such confidence, they give a real sense of time and process to the piece. Fairbanks reminds me of Agnes Martin, in a way, with the hand-drawn lines and simple forms. Martin’s work is similarly about the subtle variations within a rigid structure, and about how much emotion can be conveyed through the simplest of means. It’s a beautiful reminder that art is not about perfection, but about feeling and thinking through making.