Jug c. 1936

Yolande Delasser made this drawing, Jug, with a pale blue, and deep indigo ink on paper. Look at the way the blue spreads and pools, the way it moves from a clear outline of a jug to a more gestural floral pattern! It’s like Delasser was feeling the object, rather than just looking at it. I can see how the act of painting or drawing something helps me think, helps me see what I’m thinking. Here, the object is both present, as a recognizable image, but also dissolving, becoming something more abstract and fluid, like a memory, or an echo. I can feel Delasser asking, what does it mean to record something? Does it mean just copying it? Or does it mean letting it be reborn through you? These kind of creative, artistic questions connect to what lots of painters were and are still doing. It's a conversation across time, and each artist offers another possible answer.