Toy Cannon 1938

Here's a toy cannon, made with what looks like graphite on paper by Albert Geuppert. I see all the care he took to render this object, with its iron-oxide palette and aged wooden supports. I can imagine him, carefully studying this cannon, noting every little detail, as he slowly coaxed this image into being. You can see he was committed to the subject. I wonder what it might have been like to create this image. You know, the kind of quiet focus needed to get the shading just right. It reminds me of the obsessive work of other outsider artists. Think of Henry Darger's epic narratives, or Martín Ramírez's layered landscapes. There’s something really pure about this image. All the effort, all the care – it’s like he’s saying, "This is important," you know? In the end, that’s what art is all about: one artist, talking to another, across time.