Study for "The Well" 1916

Morton Schamberg made this drawing, Study for "The Well," with graphite sometime in the early twentieth century. The way he renders the machine parts with such precision, but leaves the background almost untouched, gives a sense of the work being more about process than finished product. There’s a tension here in the material itself, you know? It's just graphite on paper, so simple, but he coaxes so much depth out of it. Look at the shading on the bulbous part at the top – it feels so solid, so three-dimensional. The contrast between these areas and the sketchy, almost hesitant lines elsewhere makes you wonder what Schamberg was really interested in. Was it the cold, hard machinery, or something more elusive? Like Duchamp, another artist interested in plumbing the depths of the modern world, Schamberg teases out the philosophical potential in the most mundane objects, reminding us that art doesn’t have to provide answers. Instead, it can pose questions.