Shirt c. 1937

Virginia Berge made this drawing of a shirt at some point, we don’t know exactly when, but isn't it charming? The red stripes against the pale ground are so simple, yet they give the shirt a real presence. There's something very direct about how it's made, a bit like a technical drawing, but softened by Berge's hand. The lines aren't perfectly straight, and the colours have a slight wobble, like it was drawn from life. I'm interested in the repetition of marks and their variation. The red stripes are so close together that they create an optical buzz, and there's a tension between the flatness of the stripes and the implied volume of the shirt. You know, this reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin's grids, but with a folksy twist. Both artists use repetition and simple forms to create a sense of calm and order, but Berge's drawing has a more homespun quality. It's a reminder that art can be found in the everyday, in the things we see and use all the time.