Jug c. 1936

John Matulis made this painting of a jug, we don't know when or with what exactly. It's funny, because it's so clearly a jug, but the surface is so active, it feels like so much more than a jug. The color is really interesting, it's mostly green but there are these brown patches, like the jug is aging or decaying right before our eyes. I love the way the paint is applied so smoothly, yet it still feels so alive and gestural. Look how he captures the light reflecting off the surface, giving it this incredible sense of depth and volume. It's as though he's not just painting a jug, but also the atmosphere around it. It reminds me a little of some of Giorgio Morandi's still lifes, in the way he isolates simple objects and imbues them with such quiet dignity. But Matulis has his own thing going on here, embracing the beauty of imperfection and the passage of time. It's a reminder that art doesn't always have to be about grand statements; sometimes the most profound insights can be found in the humblest of subjects.