Basket, Table, Door, Window, Mirror, Rug #23 1974

Richard Artschwager made this drawing, entitled Basket, Table, Door, Window, Mirror, Rug #23, with ink on paper. Artschwager gives us an image built from the bare minimum; a delicate dance with linear perspective, where simple marks combine to create a sense of depth. You can almost feel him thinking through the placement of each line, each object. The grain on that tabletop, for example, is a collection of meandering, almost cartoonish lines, but they manage to convey something real about the wood. Then there’s the window at the bottom; a few lines describe those receding planes, creating a strange sense of depth in a flat space. It feels as though the drawing is more about the process of seeing than about the objects themselves. Artschwager's work often plays with perception and reality. You could compare this drawing to the work of someone like Vija Celmins, who also has a forensic interest in rendering everyday objects. Both artists remind us that art is an ongoing conversation about how we see the world.