Blown Glass 1935 - 1942

Here, we have an anonymous work, Blown Glass, made with indeterminate materials on paper. What strikes me is how the colour sits on the surface; it’s not trying to trick us into thinking it’s glass, it’s paint, resolutely. It's so interesting to think about rendering something transparent with opaque pigment, right? If you look closely at the body of the glass you can see that the artist has blended the pigment roughly, there are darker patches and lighter patches, it’s like they were trying to find the light within the object itself. I love how the red handles seem to cling to the clear body of the glass. It makes me think of Morandi and his still lives. There's a similar interest in the shapes and forms that are created when objects are placed together. I’m always so drawn to the way Morandi repeats the same objects over and over, each time finding something new. This drawing, much like Morandi's paintings, reminds us that art is not about capturing reality, but about creating a new one.