Ice Skate c. 1938

Eugene Bartz painted this 'Ice Skate', we don't know when, with what looks like watercolor and graphite. He has really relished the textures and tones that can be built up slowly with this medium. You can see the rust, the grain of the wood, the dullness of the metal. He has used layers of pigment to bring out the rich character of this object. It's clear that Bartz loved the materiality of this object, how it ages and changes over time. Look at the heel of the skate, it's rendered with delicate marks suggesting the pitted surface of the metal, the stains that have sunk into the wood, and the way the red paint has started to flake off. He's showing us that everything changes, everything falls apart eventually. This reminds me of some of the still life paintings of Giorgio Morandi, the way he returned again and again to the same humble objects, finding endless nuances of tone and color. Art is a conversation, not just about beauty, but about the nature of being.