Bandbox c. 1938

Gilbert Sackerman made this watercolor of a Bandbox sometime in the 20th century. The overall impression is of a pale, soft world, rendered in gentle pinks and creams, a landscape where houses and hot air balloons float in the same pictorial space. I can imagine Sackerman carefully layering the watercolour washes to build up the form, and thinking about how the light would interact with the surface, capturing its delicate appearance. It reminds me a little of the way Morandi would paint his bottles, lost in a reverie of soft focus. The bandbox, with its repetitive pattern, has a strange, dreamlike quality, like a half-remembered image from childhood. Sackerman’s loose brushstrokes and muted palette make the image feel both familiar and distant. The houses and balloons suggest a journey, a movement through space and time, and maybe also through the history of painting itself. Painters are always looking at each other, building on the past while pushing towards something new, and through this kind of exchange, we can see how painting offers endless possibilities for seeing and feeling the world.