Whale Oil Lamp c. 1940

George Yanosko made this drawing of a whale oil lamp, on paper, sometime in the 20th century. The controlled palette of golds and browns gives this image a wonderful, subtle luminosity. It’s as if the light in the artwork comes from the lamp itself. Yanosko's use of color here creates a sense of depth. The shadows seem to suggest an interest in the play of light and form, and the schematic diagrams of component parts included in the drawing are a reminder that all artworks are a kind of construction. Notice, for instance, the way Yanosko has rendered the body of the lamp with such precision, then offset this by including the more gestural images of the component parts. The contrast between the detailed drawing and the simpler diagrams is a fascinating tension in the work. Like the work of outsider artists such as Henry Darger, Yanosko offers us a singular, idiosyncratic vision. We are left to imagine his motivations for making this drawing, and the results are both enigmatic and compelling.