Buttons 1937

Isidore Steinberg made this drawing of buttons at an unknown date and with an unknown medium. The off-white paper, stained with age, provides a delicate ground for these carefully depicted objects. The arrangement of the buttons, like specimens pinned to a board, draws attention to their variety. Steinberg uses a light touch, with thin washes of color and precise linework, capturing the textures and subtle details of each button. Look at the button near the bottom which looks like a shell; see how the lines almost disappear to give it shape. This gives a sense of the artist's process: a quiet, meditative act of observation and rendering. I'm reminded of the drawings of utilitarian objects by the outsider artist James Castle, who found beauty and poetry in the everyday. Like Castle, Steinberg invites us to see the world with fresh eyes, finding art in the most unexpected places.