Main Doorway and Arch 1935 - 1942

Robert Taylor’s watercolor painting depicts a doorway in a rather stylized way. I imagine him standing there, sketchbook in hand, trying to capture the essence of this place in front of him. The door is the thing, the light and shadows, and the way the eye travels up and over the arch, past the symmetrical vases to the painted decoration above. It’s this dance that Taylor is interested in and the geometry of how we move our bodies in space. It’s this sense of place and time, trying to capture the essence of a thing. I love the idea of painting as a kind of time travel, going back and forth, trying to understand what the artist was seeing and feeling. The paintings of Giorgio de Chirico come to mind here, the geometry, the arches, and the shadows. These artists are like detectives, piecing together clues to help us understand the world around us.