Wooden Doll c. 1940

Here's a painting of a Wooden Doll by Lionel Ritchey. It's a tall figure; the palette is really limited, brown on off-white. What was Ritchey thinking? The artist takes this ancient form, the wooden doll, and reimagines it. He's smoothing it out, refining it, thinking through the process of how it came into being, the hewing and carving, the stripping away. He’s thinking about folk art traditions and the legacy of vernacular art, with its own kind of visual language. I can see the history of art, and the history of seeing, running through this one. Notice the smooth surface, the careful modeling of the figure. It makes me think about the conversation artists have, across time, about what it means to represent the human form, and how we bring our own sensibilities to that challenge. It's like Ritchey is in dialogue with other artists who have taken up similar questions, each offering their unique perspectives on the human condition. The work is imbued with a kind of quiet introspection, inviting us to contemplate the doll's presence and perhaps find our own connections to it.