Jug c. 1937

Curator: Immediately striking is the drawing’s subdued color palette. There's something comforting in its simplicity, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Yes, and notice how that simplicity belies a complexity. This work, titled "Jug", attributed to Yolande Delasser around 1937, presents an intriguing study in both watercolor and pencil on paper. The jug form rendered so precisely! Curator: Indeed, and its seeming simplicity is also symbolic of an archetypal container, recalling images of bounty and domesticity, even going as far back to ancient times and evoking a primal sense of sustenance and community. Editor: Absolutely. What fascinates me is the "S. Fayette & CO. Utica" inscription that seems to frame the jug itself. The relationship between the drawing of the object, versus the label suggesting its origin in mass production – and its implicit place within a market economy is remarkable. What materials were typically stored, bartered, or consumed in these vessels at that time? What purpose was Delasser fulfilling with the work itself? Curator: An interesting juxtaposition of form and representation, also of functionality and artistry. One could also argue about the very conscious placement of these two elements, almost forming a diptych and a conversation in symbols that reflects upon craft itself. Editor: It also feels like a catalogue entry, a study rendered as an instructional image about the production of material culture in the modern world. Yet that muted, almost somber tone hints to some melancholy perhaps? Or maybe it’s my awareness of what the war must have meant in its period, to economies, or communities who lost people that are informing my reading... Curator: An unavoidable cultural association. However, I also see something enduring in that simplicity – the jug as an everyday object elevated by artistic consideration, representing themes like memory, identity, or even cultural resilience across historical tumult. Editor: Perhaps. It makes me want to investigate other works produced within Delasser’s circle. I'm very curious to find the ways they, too, engaged in ideas regarding material, value, and production within their artistic community. Curator: An engaging journey of discovery. Delasser invites one to reflect upon layers of visual language and history, all captured within this understated drawing. Editor: And on how materials are used to not just construct forms, but to prompt reflections about what a particular mode of making tells us about our cultures.