Spectacles c. 1937

William High’s drawing of spectacles on paper is like a quiet little stage. The glasses float there, drawn in a delicate line. I can imagine High’s hand moving slowly, trying to capture the precise shape of the lenses, the fragile curve of the wire frames. What does it mean to draw spectacles? Are they a portrait of someone who needs them, a meditation on seeing and not seeing? It’s funny, when you really look at something, even something ordinary like glasses, it becomes strange and beautiful. You start to notice the way the light catches the edges, the subtle imperfections, the ghost of a reflection. Painters like Giorgio Morandi made still life paintings of bottles and jars again and again. It wasn’t really about the bottles, but about the act of looking, the possibility of finding something new each time. High’s Spectacles feels like that, an invitation to really see.