The Toilet 1955

John Bratby made this painting of a toilet with oil paint in the UK; each stroke feels like a deliberate, almost aggressive application. The surface is built up, thick and crusty, suggesting a kind of obsessive focus. I imagine Bratby, in his yellow-tinged room, circling the subject, maybe even a little bit repulsed but completely fixated. What’s so remarkable, I think, is the way he elevates the mundane, almost making it monumental. He creates this tension between the banality of the subject, the toilet, with this really expressive painterly gesture. The bold lines of yellow around the brown toilet become an emotional experience, an attitude almost. It’s like, “I’m going to paint this toilet, and I’m going to paint it with every ounce of feeling I have.” Bratby reminds us that artists are in an ongoing conversation, challenging norms and inspiring new ways of seeing the world around us, even the toilets.