Card Table c. 1936

This drawing of a Card Table was made by Henry Meyers, we don’t know when, but probably with pencil and watercolour. The palette is simple – a kind of cherry red – and the marks are gently suggestive of the object depicted, rather than painstakingly descriptive. I love the way the surface of the table is rendered: short, dry brushstrokes mimic the grain of the wood, creating a strange tension between flatness and depth, abstraction and representation. Look closely and you can see the texture of the paper coming through the pigment, reminding us that this is an image, an idea, not the thing itself. The drawing sits within a simple pencil border, like a stage set, and there are details of the table included in technical drawings at the bottom of the page, like a dance notation. What is fascinating about the piece is its apparent simplicity – a simple object simply rendered – and I can’t help but be reminded of Agnes Martin and her quiet, meditative approach to the grid.