Shirt c. 1937

Virginia Berge made this drawing of a shirt, but when, we don't know. It's mostly linear, and the colors are muted – it feels like a study in form and pattern, doesn’t it? I’m thinking about her process. Was she looking at a real shirt? Or was this from memory, or imagination? The drawing is so precise, yet there’s also something dreamy about it. The red stripes are very present but the sketch of a shirt behind the main one makes me wonder about iterations. Is that what she rejected? Or another idea? I’m also curious about the piece of material at the top, and how she would have played around with the idea of shirts, stripe, and so on. I love how artists play with motifs. It’s like they’re having a conversation across time, inspiring each other. Ultimately, it is about ambiguity and uncertainty. There’s no single right way to read a work of art, is there?