Silver Sugar Bowl c. 1936

Here is Simon Weiss’s ‘Silver Sugar Bowl’, made with graphite on paper. Look at how light and shadow play across its curved surface. I wonder if Weiss was thinking about surface and depth, how light can shape an object, make it seem both present and somehow ethereal. I imagine him carefully applying each line, building up the form slowly. He probably had to decide where to push the darkness, and where to let light flood in. He’s building a sort of language around the way the object holds light, it's almost like he's having a conversation with it. This drawing reminds me of the work of artists like Giorgio Morandi, who also dedicated their practice to studying objects. I think all artists are in conversation with each other, even across generations, and this sugar bowl is part of that ongoing dialogue. It embodies a specific way of seeing and experiencing the world.