Dish c. 1940

Henry Moran made this drawing of a dish, but when is a mystery, and with what is anyone's guess! What's really cool here is the attention to detail, I mean look at the way he’s handled the transparency and the texture of the glass, it's like he’s trying to capture not just how the dish looks, but how it feels to look at it. The drawing is so precise, but there’s also something a little off about it, too. It’s as if Moran isn’t just copying the dish, but somehow re-interpreting it. Take those little grapes and leaves that decorate the bowl. They're so carefully rendered, but they also have this slightly wonky, almost cartoonish quality. The color palette is almost grayscale and the whole image is slightly faded, but the composition is very tight, as if Moran had to get it all in one. I'm reminded of Vija Celmins, another artist who obsessively draws everyday objects, but somehow manages to make them seem strange and unfamiliar. Art isn't about perfection, it's about exploring the world and finding new ways of seeing.