Two Seated Sleigh c. 1939

Rolland Ayres made this drawing of a "Two Seated Sleigh" with red and beige paint on paper. Look how Ayres teases out the sleigh’s form! I wonder, was he thinking about design, or did he just love this object? I can imagine him slowly, carefully layering the thin washes of color to capture the sleigh’s curves and tufted seats. The red is so precise; the beige is warmer and more inviting, like a memory. The slightly off-kilter angles give it a playful feel, like the sleigh might just glide right off the page. He seems to be both celebrating the sleigh and also taking it apart to see how it works. It reminds me a little of how Léger would isolate mechanical forms in his paintings. I like to think of artists like Ayres, and Léger for that matter, as part of this long chain of image-makers, each one picking up where the last left off and pushing things a little further, it’s like a party line. Artists, right, we are always in conversation with each other.