Refined Necessity

Artist: Morgan Johnson

Format: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 14" × 18"

Description:

There is something quietly subversive about Refined Necessity. Morgan Johnson takes the most democratic of objects — a fork, a spoon, a knife, a glass, the instruments every human being on earth uses multiple times daily — and renders them in rich, luminous oils that make them look like they belong in a museum. And that, precisely, is the point. From the Unconditional Series, a body of work devoted to finding beauty regardless of subject or circumstance, Johnson asks how far advanced civilization has traveled from eating with its hands to requiring that the tools themselves be beautiful, balanced, worthy of the table. The palette answers in warm gold, deep bronze, and glowing amber — these are not cold, clinical instruments but objects that catch the light like jewelry. The most arresting detail arrives on closer inspection: the convex bowl of the spoon holds a reflection, but the reflection is faceless. The beauty of the object has become the subject. The person using it is incidental.

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