Box Stove c. 1942

Here is Charles Von Urban's photograph of a "Box Stove." Looking at it, I imagine Von Urban might have been thinking about how objects shape our lives, and how even the most functional items can have a kind of ornate beauty. I can see it’s a black and white photograph of a stove, with a kind of gothic design. The surface has all these repetitive patterns like you might see on a cast iron radiator. The stove sits on these elegant, almost animalistic legs, which I find really interesting. I keep thinking about the original object itself. I feel like Von Urban is asking us to consider what we value, what we choose to preserve, and how we imbue everyday things with meaning. It reminds me that artists are always in conversation with the past, finding new ways to see and represent the world around them, and to think about painting as a form of expression that’s all about feeling and uncertainty, leaving room for different interpretations.