Parasol c. 1938

Douglas Cox painted this ‘Parasol’, and while we don’t know exactly when, it feels like looking into someone’s memory of an object. You know, something seen fleetingly that sticks with you. There’s a tenderness to the marks. Soft browns, faded blues and creams…I bet it was painted in watercolor on paper, and it has this overall feeling of gentle dissolving that I really love. I can imagine Cox being drawn to the pattern of the parasol, how the plaid creates its own kind of wonky geometry as the fabric folds and curves. It’s as if the lines are breathing. And that handle! It’s so elongated and elegant, like a scepter from some lost civilization. When I look at this, I think about the tradition of still life painting, but also about how artists are always riffing off of each other, taking old forms and making them new. For Cox, maybe painting everyday objects like this was a way of understanding their unique place in the world.