Lamp c. 1936

Burton Ewing made this drawing of a lamp, but we don't know when. It's graphite on paper. Imagine Ewing’s hand moving so smoothly to create this rendering. I can see him, his brow furrowed in concentration as he follows the object in his gaze to then translate the world through his hand, a material language. The soft gray is really beautiful and renders the metallic, solid object into a soft ghost on paper. What I love about looking at a drawing like this is that it reminds me of what it is to attend to the world, to really look. Drawing is a form of thinking, a way of understanding, so what did Ewing understand about this lamp in his act of depiction? Perhaps how the light would gleam on the metal? I wonder what the lamp illuminated, what Ewing was looking at it for. Maybe another drawing?