Facsimile of the painting on the inside of the foot end of the sarcophagus of Aashyt 2051 BC

Charles K. Wilkinson made this watercolor and graphite facsimile of a sarcophagus painting sometime in the 20th century. Look at how those colors meet! That gentle palette of muted greens and reds, laid on a warm beige ground, feels ancient and modern at once. There's a real sense of process here, a kind of thoughtful transcription of the original. Wilkinson isn’t trying to trick us, just to understand. Notice those sandals lined up in a row. Each one is slightly different, slightly wonkier than the last, giving each its own distinct personality. The lines are crisp and clear, but the washes of color are soft and atmospheric, like a memory fading with time. Wilkinson was an accomplished scholar and curator, but I also see in this work something of the spirit of artists like Forrest Bess, who created their own symbolic languages, their own maps of meaning. Both Wilkinson and Bess invite us to consider art as a form of personal exploration, a way of making sense of the world through seeing and representing it.