Morandi’s Objects

I sat at Giorgio Morandi’s table in exactly the same place that he sat for more than 40 years. On his table the same slant of light glowed for me as had for him. I watched it slowly bloom across his now empty, but tracery filled work surface for two days in the spring of 2015. One by one, more than 260 objects that he had collected came into my hands. Dust covered and ordinary, they presented themselves as part of the mystery that Morandi left behind for us to try and understand. Many objects returned again and again to perform for him and take a fresh position within the chorus of voices arranged on his table. How is it that these quotidian objects contained so much power that they kept Morandi in thrall to them throughout his life? From "The Ordinary Sublime" by Joel Meyerowitz