Handcuffs 1935 - 1942

Al Curry, who lived to be 100 years old, painted these watercolors of handcuffs. I wonder how the image came to him? Did he hold the cuffs in his hands? Or did he work from memory? I like to think about how Curry might have felt as he painted the subject. He’s trying to show us what it’s like to hold something, to be restrained. You can see how he patiently, persistently built up layers of color. The overall impression is one of quiet intensity. The bars are dark, they have a kind of gravity. This is what painters do; they find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Al Curry’s paintings offer a quiet meditation on objects, inviting us to contemplate their stories and symbolic weight. He’s in conversation with artists like Giorgio Morandi, or even Agnes Martin, who also found endless inspiration in everyday objects and humble materials.