Unknown Object 1935 - 1942

This drawing of an unknown object, was made with watercolor, and who knows what else. I love the anonymous nature of it, like finding a weird sketch in your Grandparent's attic. The artist is clearly interested in process; the notes scrawled on the paper's surface give the game away. And the color is just so… odd. That muted palette gives it a kind of otherworldly feel, like some strange, forgotten design. The artist has paid close attention to the physicality of the medium. There's a real transparency to the washes, a delicacy that contrasts with the object's geometry. Look at the way they’ve rendered the base – that careful layering of greens and blues, feels like they were trying to capture the object in its true form. It reminds me a little of some of the surrealist object drawings, but more earnest, maybe? It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, a back-and-forth between artists and ideas, and that meaning is never fixed.