Cleaver 1935 - 1942

Editor: Today we're looking at "Cleaver," a watercolor and pencil drawing by William Frank, created sometime between 1935 and 1942. It feels almost like a mechanical drawing, but also organic with the slight imperfections of the wood showing through. What stands out to you in this piece? Curator: Well, isn’t it curious? I mean, look at this object! It’s simultaneously familiar and strange. What appears to be a cleaver…but of wood? Immediately my mind is awash with questions. Is it about the idea of a tool, rather than the tool itself? A kind of abstract representation of utility, perhaps? The texture created with the watercolor and pencil really enhances the sense of tangible object. The fact that it is carefully rendered makes it, in my opinion, a quiet statement about valuing the handmade in a world increasingly dominated by machines. Don’t you think it’s wonderfully paradoxical? Editor: That's an interesting take. I was stuck on the 'cleaver' association and how it seems at odds with the softer, almost gentle quality of the medium. The wood-grain and detailing…it almost romanticizes what is essentially a tool of… well, cleaving! Curator: Precisely! And that tension, my friend, is where the magic lies. The mundane elevated through artistic expression. I’d even suggest Frank might be inviting us to consider the violence inherent in even the simplest acts, and maybe, just maybe, prompting a re-evaluation. After all, doesn't art hold a mirror to society, forcing us to examine our reflections in unconventional light? Editor: I hadn't thought about the idea of violence connected to a common household object. I guess that's the point of looking closely, isn’t it? It really challenges how you see things. Curator: Exactly! And isn't it fabulous when a seemingly simple sketch, drawn decades ago, continues to provoke and reshape our understanding? The echoes of artistic inspiration, carried down through the ages…it’s quite something, wouldn’t you say?