Desk c. 1937

Editor: This is George Fairbanks' "Desk," circa 1937. It's a drawing, pencil and watercolour on paper. It has such a stark and simple feel, like an architect’s plan. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Well, darling, isn't it curious? It feels so...unlived in. Like a stage set waiting for a drama that never arrives. Fairbanks renders this desk with such precise lines, almost cold, and that dominant, saturated red is wonderfully jarring against the emptiness. Makes me think about suppressed energy, all that potential, yet...stillness. Do you find that color unsettling or reassuring? Editor: Unsettling, definitely. It’s such a flat red, almost blood-like, but without the life. More like a memory of a stain. Curator: Precisely! A haunting echo of function. The starkness emphasizes the form itself, almost as if the idea of the desk, rather than a usable piece of furniture, is what interests Fairbanks. One wonders what correspondence *should* have lived here, what vital documents…What secrets *that* desk could tell! Don't you feel like giving it a story? Editor: Absolutely! I guess it makes me wonder about what's missing – papers, a lamp, maybe even the person using it. Curator: Yes, what tales are untold in this silent portrait? Now *that* is the art. I leave with such curiosity for what once might have been or yet may come. Editor: I totally agree. Thinking about absence, not presence, makes the piece a lot more compelling.