Watch Key c. 1938

Harry Grossen created this painting of a watch key. It’s not dated but the image has emerged through layer upon layer. I can imagine him adding thin washes to the surface, gradually building up the figure. I wonder what Grossen was thinking as he was making it? He probably had the real thing in front of him. Is it gold or is he suggesting gold? There is a subtle realism to it but it’s more than just an accurate depiction. It has a naive quality, a sense of artlessness. The figure is so precise, so contained, and yet, the medium feels liberating, gestural, like a dance between control and chance. I see other artists in this; people like Morandi, or even Forrest Bess. Artists who take one subject and just keep going back to it. And now, years later, we continue the exchange, riffing on what’s come before. Art is always echoing.