Circular Tin Bath Tub c. 1938

Wilbur M. Rice made this drawing of a circular tin bath tub with watercolor and graphite on paper. I can imagine Rice's thinking as he methodically drew this object from an unusual perspective. The cool, neutral palette is so calming, but the subject matter is just so odd. He renders the mundane with an alienating precision; the odd perspective of the tub and the coldness of the tin somehow make it seem uninhabitable. I find myself wondering, was Rice interested in how industrialization had influenced our ideas of home and comfort? Was he commenting on the strangeness of our everyday lives? It makes me think of other artists working in this mode, like the deadpan photographs of domestic spaces by Ed Ruscha and the hyperrealist sculptures of domestic objects by Charles Ray. Painting and drawing, like all art making, is about participating in an ongoing conversation. Artists are always responding to and building upon the ideas of those who came before them, and in turn, inspiring those who will come after.