Wooden Armoire c. 1941

Adele Brooks made this drawing of a wooden armoire, we’re not sure exactly when, using what looks like watercolour or gouache. The palette is subdued – a kind of reddish brown that’s repeated to create an illusion of depth and shadow. I think that Brooks is interested in the idea of art-making as a record of process. The painting looks like a study for a piece of furniture. The top half of the sheet is taken up with a simple elevation of the object, but the bottom half contains technical drawings of the armoire’s constituent parts. I like the idea that the artist is both representing an object, and also breaking it down to its material components. There's an attention to detail, it's evident in the delicate way that Brooks has rendered the highlights on the wooden panels. It reminds me of some of the technical drawings made by furniture designers like Gerrit Rietveld, but there's also something very personal and intimate about this image. It really makes you consider the nature of art as an ongoing exchange of ideas.