Clock 1935 - 1942

This rendering of a clock was made with watercolor on paper by an anonymous artist. It feels like the artist was trying to figure something out, working through the image to find it. The earthy browns and yellows are washed on thinly, the clock face a pale sun behind the darker wood. I love the shadow running down the center of the long box-like shape, suggesting a third dimension in this otherwise flatly rendered object. And notice how the painting sort of fades out at the bottom, unresolved. The whole image reminds me of Giorgio Morandi and his quiet, meditative still-life paintings of bottles and jars. Like Morandi, this artist seems less interested in the object itself and more interested in the process of seeing and representing it. Art isn't about fixed meanings, it's about the ongoing conversation of looking and responding.