Sugar Bowl c. 1937

Janet Riza created this watercolor painting of a sugar bowl. The predominant blue hue captures your attention, defining its overall form and reflecting light in a way that suggests transparency and depth. The bowl is rendered with geometric precision, composed of symmetrical panels, echoing a structuralist approach to design. Observe how the artist uses the interplay of light and shadow to articulate each facet, creating an almost crystalline quality. Here, the repetitive, geometric shapes of the sugar bowl might be seen as a semiotic system. These shapes transform an everyday object into something more abstract, where color, form, and structure converge. The choice of watercolor as a medium softens the geometric lines, inviting interpretation beyond its mere appearance. The artwork functions aesthetically and prompts questions about how artists use form and medium to explore themes of representation and abstraction. It challenges us to look beyond the object to consider the underlying structures that give meaning to our visual world.