The “Open Drawer” Question
I’m traveling and don’t have much time to go into explanation. For more than ten years I have been bugged by the “open drawer” question: why do so many still-lifes by artists as different as Picasso (above) and Chardin have an open drawer? The knob always faces the viewer. Then today it dawned. I happened on a drawing by Salvador Dali in which the knob on the drawer is – guess where? – in the studio. Artists were portraying an open drawer because, to another artist, it would immediately remind them of something they all are familiar with. The meaning would then become clear. Once you get it, it’s like pulling a drawer open.
Check back soon. I’ll publish an entry on it later this week.
Posted 28 Mar 2011: DaliPicassoTheoryVisual Perception
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