Tinsel Picture c. 1937

Here's a small oval painting, called Tinsel Picture, made by George File. Looking at the bouquet of flowers, slightly wonky, cartoon-like, it feels like File was really having a dialogue with the materials, pushing and pulling at them. The whole thing has this incredible balance between control and accident, doesn’t it? I imagine him, lost in the act of painting, trying to capture something elusive about the way flowers feel. The more I look, the more I see the ghost of other paintings—like a conversation across time. The color palette, the shapes, the feel—it's all so George File, and yet I can see him looking at other paintings that came before. Like he's riffing on old ideas, but making them his own. And that’s what painting’s all about, right? We all build on what came before, adding our own voice to the mix.