Economy: Detail of Cloth and Bonnet 1938

J. Howard Iams made this study of cloth and bonnets with watercolor and graphite, and the process feels very visible to me. It’s all about variations on a colour, how you can shift it and layer it, building it up. The artist shows a blue bonnet in two views, surrounded by square swatches of fabric. Look at the ribbons, how the colour pools at the edges, and then washes out to almost nothing. It’s not overworked; it’s like he’s letting the water do its thing. I think of Agnes Martin. She used such simple means to make something so complex. And then there’s the bonnet itself, this sort of sculptural form. It’s like Iams is saying, this humble object has a beauty all its own. It doesn’t need to be flashy or loud. The beauty is in the details, in the way the light catches the folds and frills. It's the kind of quiet art that keeps talking to you, the more you look.