Shoulder Yoke 1939

Here's a yoke shouldered into being on paper by Albert Geuppert. It’s done with what looks like graphite and watercolor. I can imagine Geuppert, one man with a clear mission to describe, to record. I wonder what he was thinking as he built this thing up, stroke by stroke? Maybe he thought about how this tool sits on someone's shoulders, distributing weight, enabling work. The even tone of the watercolor feels very matter-of-fact, as if to say: this is the object. The grain of the wood is subtly rendered, and the form is solid but slightly wonky. Maybe that’s the real yoke talking through Geuppert. Other artists like Marsden Hartley also found profound inspiration in "folk" art. The artist's own hand making marks, trying to capture something real - that's the conversation. Painting, for me, is an expression of an encounter, of shared experience. And it is an ongoing dialogue.