Monkey Statuette c. 1937

This watercolor painting shows a 'Monkey Statuette' by Frank Fumagalli. It’s really brown, red, and, well, brown. It looks like he worked with very diluted paint, adding layers, almost like a glaze. The paint is washy, as if the image emerged by chance. I wonder what he was thinking as he painted? Maybe he was trying to capture the weight and the stillness of the statuette? It kind of reminds me of Morandi, in the way he takes a mundane object and turns it into something monumental. But more than anything, it's a beautiful and poetic ode to the power of observation. It shows how we, as artists, are always trying to make sense of the world through our own sensibilities. It feels like an invitation to slow down, to look closely, and to find beauty in the unexpected.