Desk c. 1938

This drawing of a desk was made by Samuel Fineman, we don't know exactly when, but he was born in 1855. Fineman's meticulous attention to detail and the colour palette gives the desk a kind of quiet presence. The way the surface is rendered, so smoothly, almost conceals the process, but it's the very act of looking, of observing, that becomes the point. I'm really drawn to the little golden pulls on the drawers. They have a gorgeous, almost cartoonish quality that contrasts with the more sober rendering of the wood itself. Those pulls introduce a note of playful absurdity into the otherwise serious depiction, like a little wink. It reminds me of the way Giorgio Morandi painted bottles; ordinary, but imbued with so much care and attention, they become something more. The picture invites us to consider how everyday objects, rendered with care and attention, can become sites of contemplation. It's about looking closely, finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, and understanding art as a process of ongoing conversation.