Carpet Bag c. 1938

Samuel Faigin made this painting of a carpet bag, we don't know when, but he worked until 1995. The bag is a still life, but there’s also something active about it. It's like the object is mid-journey, about to set off or just arriving, filled with secrets and journeys. It's painted in neutral tones but it has splashes of red and green and orange, the kind of colors that catch your eye and make you wonder about their origin. Looking at this, I imagine Samuel Faigin being really interested in the textures, the rough fabric, the smooth leather handle, the worn edges, and the way the light catches the surface. I can almost feel the weight of it. It reminds me of Morandi, who was so good at transforming the everyday object into something transcendent. It’s just an ordinary bag, but in Faigin's hands, it becomes a vessel for something more. Painters borrow from each other all the time. We all talk to each other, riffing on a theme, finding new ways of seeing and feeling. And the more we look, the more we find.