Andiron (one of pair) c. 1935

Jack Staloff created this andiron, one of a pair, using watercolor and graphite, and what strikes me is how a drawing can also be a kind of artifact. The gradient rendering of the brass is gorgeous, almost tactile. The line drawing in graphite is rendered with a draughtsman's precision, a scientific mode of observation that is so at odds with the slightly wonky rendering of the 'real' object, set slightly forward in the pictorial space. There's something very funny about the tiny 'inches' that label the scale, as if measuring something could truly pin it down. It reminds me of the drawings of Bernd and Hilla Becher, maybe because it elevates the everyday to the status of fine art. Art is always a conversation, an argument, a flirtation with the past. And like any good conversation, it's less about answers and more about the questions it provokes.