Wood Grille c. 1939

Albert Pratt created this Wood Grille drawing with what looks like watercolor or gouache, and pencil. The muted tones suggest the artist was trying to capture the feeling of a specific place or memory. You know, like when you’re trying to remember a dream? There's something really tender in Pratt's depiction of this window. He paid so much attention to the details of the woodwork, and the way the light falls on the wall. It’s like he wants to hold onto this image. The transparency in the paint adds to the feeling that it’s a depiction of a memory, not something present. Look at the way the lines of the grille are slightly uneven. Pratt wasn't trying to create a perfect representation, but capture the essence of the form itself. I think of Giorgio Morandi and his paintings of bottles, another artist interested in the poetry of everyday objects. In both there's beauty and ambiguity in the process.