Flask c. 1936

Michael Trekur's 'Flask' shows a simple subject with the complex mark making. Look at the texture in the purple of the glass, it’s not just flat color, but a latticework of strokes that give the flask its form. The way Trekur approaches color and line reminds me of the way some abstract artists build up their canvases, layer after layer, where each mark is a response to the last. It’s like he’s thinking about how the thing is made as much as what the thing is. I can almost feel the scratch of the pen or brush as it moved across the page, each line carefully placed to build up the volume and form. The color, that dreamy, almost bruised purple, and the delicate shading is really evocative. It reminds me a bit of Giorgio Morandi’s still lifes, in the way he finds something profound and beautiful in the everyday. Ultimately, it’s a testament to the power of art to transform how we see the world around us.