Strap Hinge for Door 1939

Herman Stroh made this watercolour painting of a strap hinge for a door some time before he died in 1995. He seems to have been fascinated by the shape and texture of this piece of metal. I am thinking about the way Stroh used watercolour paint to capture the way light reflects off the object's surface and the rust that has accumulated over time. It looks as though it’s been dug up or retrieved from somewhere, covered in dirt, like an archeological find. I like how he lets the ground show through the pigment. Look at the way he has painted each of the circular holes. I wonder if he was thinking about the function of this object, which is now obsolete. I’m touched by the way it has been preserved and immortalized through painting, the work of opening doors continuing in the work of painting. I suppose you could say that all artists are involved in the work of opening new doors and new ways of seeing.