Bandbox 1935 - 1942

This Bandbox, made by an anonymous artist with paint on paper, shows a painted box and its lid. The colours are soft, with the box depicted in muted blues and greens. You can see that the artist had a system for the decoration, but the marks themselves are tentative, handmade, and so you get this tension between a systematic approach and improvisation. The colour here feels important – how the blue background almost seeps through the decorative elements. It's this pale blue that unifies the piece, allowing the other colours to play off of it without feeling too chaotic. Notice how the decorative edges on the side of the box are carefully painted. There's this lovely, slightly uneven rhythm to the pattern, which gives the piece a lot of its charm. This has a similar handmade feel to some of the work of Bill Traylor, though he comes from a different world. Both artists share a kind of directness in their work, a willingness to let the process show. This piece isn't trying to be perfect; it embraces its imperfections. In the end, that’s what makes it so appealing.