Flask c. 1936

John Dana made this image of a flask on paper, though we don't know exactly when. It’s all about the colour, isn’t it? That deep, almost bruised purple that somehow feels both delicate and weighty. Looking closely, you can see Dana using the paper as part of the colour itself, layering up the purples to give a sense of depth and form. The vertical lines at the bottom have a real sense of the hand, of someone carefully building up the image stroke by stroke. And then, at the top, those little dots, like bubbles rising to the surface. It reminds me a little of Giorgio Morandi's still lifes, the way he keeps things simple, returning to the same objects again and again, each time finding something new in the subtle shifts of light and shade. Like Morandi, this piece by Dana isn’t about perfection, it’s about exploration, about finding beauty in the everyday.