Sturgeon Spear c. 1938

This ‘Sturgeon Spear’ was made by Samuel Faigin, and it’s rendered with graphite and watercolor on paper. Look closely, and you can see the real subject here is the process itself. The artist doesn’t hide his workings. The graphite lines are clearly visible, providing an almost diagrammatic structure, which is then animated by loose washes of color. Up close, you can see the texture of the paper coming through. In places, the paint is built up to give a mottled, rusty quality. The artist really wants us to feel the weight and age of this object. I love the tiny, almost ghost-like drawing of a fork in the bottom right corner. It makes me think of how the artist’s mind might have been wandering, seeing connections, and making intuitive leaps. It reminds me that art is a form of ongoing conversation across time, and that it’s always open to multiple interpretations.