Now I could have probably picked any Giorgio Morandi painting and not that many of us could tell the difference.

Dude was obsessed! For 50 years, Morandi literally only painted jars and vases. His apartment was completely filled with them. Georgey boy would make different compositions and groupings of the containers, then painstakingly paint them in a style that became more and more abstract as he got older. Failing eyesight, perhaps?

In 1915 Morandi was discharged from the military due to a mental breakdown, which may be a clue to the rest of his reclusive, hoarder life. His nickname was ‘il monaco’ or ‘the monk.’ But how can you make time for friends when you have to paint containers all day? So many jars, so little time! People talk about the “meditative silence” of the monk's work, and I can get that. But after seeing an exhibition of over 100 Morandis, not just the paintings start to get fuzzy.

And maybe that’s the intent, to express the trancelike concentration of the artist’s intense, lifelong focus on a single subject. To help you begin to understand his deep dedication to the visual poetry of still life....But the exhibition still made me want a container full of strong espresso.