Fingerbowl c. 1929 - 1930

This set of bowls is in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, but we don’t know when it was made or by whom. Someone put such care into shaping these silvery surfaces. Look at the repetition of the petal shapes, like the form of a flower opening and closing, caught between bloom and bud. Imagine holding the tools, pushing them with a steady pressure against the cool, hard material. I wonder if the artist was thinking about the people who would use these bowls, dipping their fingers to cleanse them? Or did the idea of touch come later, after the bowls were already made and the artist could see how the light caught the curved surfaces? It’s not easy to bring something into being. The anonymous artist who made these bowls must have known how to embrace uncertainty, too, allowing the shapes to emerge through trial and error. Like any artist, they were in conversation with other makers who came before them, learning from their techniques and adding something new.