Rocking Chair c. 1937

Tulita Westfall, who lived from 1855 to 1995, made this drawing of a rocking chair. I love how she’s approached it, not as a static object but as something she can describe in the process of making. There’s a real physicality to the way she maps out each element of the chair with these confident, descriptive lines. It’s all line, no tone, but the way it's drawn makes the chair appear as if it were really there, in front of you. The lines remind me of technical drawings or diagrams but Westfall’s attention to the object is so careful. Notice how all of the measurements are written inside the shapes to describe each individual part. It makes me think about the relationship between the drawing and the real object it describes. Westfall's drawing is not just a picture, it's a plan, a set of instructions, and a love letter to a humble, comforting object. It’s like she is in conversation with all the other artists who have drawn or painted chairs, from Van Gogh to Warhol.