Wrought Iron Pot Hooks c. 1938

Fred Hassebrock made this drawing of wrought iron pot hooks, we don't know when or with what. But the lines are clear and give a lot of detail to the iron. It's just a drawing of these utilitarian hooks, but the image has a lot to say about how art helps us look at the world. There’s a funny tension in the drawing, this contrast between something super functional, almost antique, and the softness of the lines. It’s like, here’s this brute object, but it's rendered with real tenderness. The drawing reveals a kind of elegance in the shape of the iron. I keep coming back to the knot at the top, how it makes the hooks into a kind of face, or a weird, asymmetrical body. Hassebrock reminds me of Charles Sheeler who made images of barns with an unsentimental eye. But really this drawing suggests an alternative way of thinking about art history. It's about how artists, like Hassebrock, find unexpected beauty in everyday objects. It reminds me that art can be found in the most unexpected places.