Telephone 1916

Morton Schamberg painted "Telephone" using oil on canvas, we don't know exactly when. The colors are muted, the blues and grays creating a kind of industrial calm. Schamberg clearly enjoyed the challenge of representing this new technology, which, like painting, facilitates communication. The painting has this great tension between flatness and depth. The shapes are simplified, almost geometric, but they still hint at the object. Look at the circles of the receiver. They’re not quite perfect, they wobble slightly, creating this sense of vibration, as if the phone is ringing! The paint application is smooth, the brushstrokes disappearing into the forms. It reminds me of the work of Francis Picabia, who also painted machines in a detached and slightly absurd way. Schamberg isn’t making a judgment, he is simply observing. It’s like he’s saying, "Here it is, the telephone, another strange object in our modern world." And that’s kind of beautiful in its own way.