Chase, New York, American League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company 1909 - 1911

This baseball card was produced by the American Tobacco Company, part of their White Border series. It's kind of cool to think about these mass-produced images, normally you wouldn't think about them in a museum, but here it is! It's an interesting idea to consider art as a process. What strikes me is the way it feels both precise and a little bit off, kind of like when you're trying to remember someone's face. The colors are muted, almost like a faded photograph, but then the blue background pops, creating this strange tension. Look at the way the text "NEW YORK" is rendered. It’s slightly smudged, giving it a kind of immediacy, as if it were painted on the shirt in real time. This card reminds me of those old Weegee photographs from the 40s, gritty and real, but with a touch of glamour, they are worlds away but strangely connected. It's about capturing a moment, but also about the limitations of representation, what we choose to remember and what fades away.