Clock c. 1935

This is Ruth Bialostosky’s “Clock,” made with what looks like pencil on paper. What immediately grabs me is the color – these warm browns and beiges that speak of age and history. You know, like looking at an antique photograph. There's a tenderness in the way Bialostosky renders the wood grain, those soft, almost blurry lines that make you want to reach out and touch it. The clock face is a little world of its own, with tiny numerals and delicate hands, with the flowers and bird above, it's as if time itself is blooming. I think of Agnes Martin's quiet grids, and how she made a whole world with so little. Bialostosky does something similar here, reminding us that art doesn't need to shout to be heard, but instead can whisper something true about the world.