Toleware Coffee Pot c. 1937

Max Soltmann's toleware coffee pot is brought to life with paint on canvas. Imagine the pleasure in noticing this everyday object and then amplifying its quiet beauty with decoration. I can picture Soltmann, brush in hand, circling the pot, deciding where each red dab of paint would land to create a cherry. A painter's eye is like a detective, finding the hidden life in things. The curves of the leaves are like musical notes. Is it naive? Is it art? I think it is. And there is a canary or a goldfinch, emblazoned on its flank. The bird is an ecstatic slash of yellow, the colour of sun. Maybe this object was a link back to a homeland, a memory of folk art, of something real and true. It's like the coffee pot is singing a little song to us.