Bed c. 1936

Jack Bochner drew this study of a ‘Bed’ from the Bliss House in Springfield, Massachusetts in the late 20th century, using graphite and colored pencil. It has this amazing linear quality, like a schematic, but it's also quite evocative. I can imagine Bochner, pencil in hand, carefully measuring and drawing each line, each dimension, trying to capture not just the object itself, but also a sense of its history and place. What was he thinking, drawing this bed? Maybe about time, architecture, domestic life, or the history of design. The image is not only a record, but it's also a meditation. This reminds me of those early architectural drawings, yet there's something uniquely modern about Bochner’s approach. It's like he's having a conversation with the past, reinterpreting it through a contemporary lens. He draws a bed in the late 20th century, which echoes the construction of a bed built between 1710-1730. It makes you think about how artists are always building upon the ideas of those who came before, creating a layered dialogue across time.