Aquarium 1936

This is "Aquarium" by G. Ralph Smith, who was born in 1907, it's a print, so a work made through process. The all-over grey tone is made up of so many tiny marks, like a million little decisions, creating a scene of people looking in tanks, maybe in an aquarium. This overall greyness creates a contemplative mood, but also a kind of haze, like a memory that is forming, dissolving, and reforming, like thought itself. I'm looking at the tank on the right, the way the giant fish is seen through the glass, how Smith renders its reflection. It reminds me of Piranesi's architectural prints; the way the space is constructed is very particular, like a stage set, but also, there is something unstable about the space, an ambiguity that doesn't quite resolve. I also think of Charles Burchfield, who made watercolours of houses that were a little anthropomorphic; you might look at this work and think: is it really about the fish? Or, is it about the people who are looking, or the architecture that contains them? It’s this uncertainty that makes the piece so compelling.