Cigar Store Indian c. 1937

Walter Hochstrasser made this object portrait, Cigar Store Indian, which feels like a ghost from the history of representation. I imagine Hochstrasser, in 1973, studying the sculpture closely. He would have been looking so hard and so long. The artist really slowed down the work to notice the details. He would be mixing and matching to render this three-dimensional carving in two dimensions. There's a sense of a person trying to work out what they think of this complicated object. I think about how we, as artists, are always in conversation with each other, across time and space. Each artist building on, reacting to, and interpreting the ideas of those who came before. Painting is like thinking; it's an embodied expression that can hold multiple meanings. It can also offer a space for uncertainty, inviting us to bring our own perspectives and experiences to the act of looking and understanding.