Carbine Gun c. 1937

George Fairbanks made this drawing of a Carbine Gun, but we don't know when or exactly with what, but I would guess it was drawn on paper. What is striking about this piece is its delicate nature. You would expect a drawing of a gun to have some macho bluster, but this is a precise and carefully rendered study. The mark-making is controlled; you get a real sense of Fairbanks' hand, how he built up the tones and textures of the gun. Look how the brown shades into lighter browns and tans. It’s as if the gun is rendered in watercolor, like a still-life. Fairbanks' approach reminds me of how Agnes Martin, who used a similarly precise and controlled method to depict the subtlest shifts in emotional states. In this work, you have the clear description, but also something poetic: the gun is presented not just as a weapon, but as an object of contemplation.