Toy Bank: "Paddy and the Pig" c. 1938

Sarkis Erganian painted this toy bank, "Paddy and the Pig", using watercolor to capture its playful and peculiar nature. The strokes are delicate, almost tentative, as if Erganian is feeling out the form of this object, letting the colors bleed into each other to find its shape. It's like he's thinking through the paint, each brushstroke a meditation on the nature of kitsch and the process of replication. Look at the texture of the pig's skin, rendered with such soft, diluted washes that it almost seems to glow, in contrast to the man's coat, a deep, unwavering blue. The artist is not trying to trick us into thinking this is a real thing, but rather to make us aware of the act of seeing itself. The eyes of the figure are perhaps the strangest of all. It reminds me of Magritte, both of them leaving us questioning what we think we know. Maybe that’s the point - to remind us that art is always a conversation, an ongoing game of seeing and interpreting.