Toleware Metal Teapot c. 1939

Andrew Topolosky made this ‘Toleware Metal Teapot’ in an unknown year. Here we have a humble vessel, carefully rendered. I imagine Topolosky, squinting, trying to get the light just right, mapping every dent and imperfection. The tea pot's surface is a mottled landscape of dark grays and browns, punctuated by a garland of dark red splotches. Think about it – the discipline of looking, of really seeing, of trying to capture the essence of this mundane object. I wonder if Topolosky ever felt like he was wrestling with the teapot, trying to pin down its elusive form, its metallic sheen? The red touches feel almost festive against the worn metal. It makes me think of artists like Giorgio Morandi, who spent their whole lives painting the same bottles, searching for some kind of deeper truth in the repetition. There's a quiet beauty in that dedication, a kind of stubborn refusal to be distracted by the flashy and new. You realize that, for artists, everything is alive and has the potential to be made into something else.