Candlestick c. 1939

Curator: Here we have Elisabeth Fulda's "Candlestick," likely created around 1939, rendered in watercolor. It depicts a glass candlestick holder. What's your take on it? Editor: There's a delicate quality to it. The artist's use of watercolors creates a sort of hazy, dreamlike effect. I find it both simple and elegant. Curator: Considering the era, you know, just before World War II truly gripped Europe, functional designs like this gained a different meaning. Everyday objects became almost defiant expressions of normalcy. How do you think this watercolor contributes to that? Editor: The composition is certainly quite ordered; it's got a solid, centered verticality, the curves and lines meticulously crafted with some symmetry in the lower part and the stem but contrasting at the top, creating a bit of focal tension in that area. Curator: Right. Fulda worked during a time when functionalism, as seen in the Bauhaus movement, deeply influenced design. But it’s also interesting to see a handcrafted approach celebrating an item meant for daily life through the medium of fine art. A bit unusual but refreshing. It perhaps indicates how one makes sense of their reality using different forms of art. Editor: You can definitely sense that intention through the artist's attention to how the light interacts with the glass. See the transparency? The shades and colors blending smoothly create depth, imbuing a sense of both weight and ethereality. The choice of the light greenish blue color supports the mood it sets. Curator: Indeed, color plays a key role in setting the mood, given how its function and the social context surrounding candelabra—once objects central to interior illumination and social gatherings, slowly losing relevance with the rising presence of technology at home. This, coupled with the coming of war. How can we ignore its impact on the way we experience the ordinary? Editor: Good point. Maybe the very clarity in form reminds one to cherish simplicity, to seek warmth and solace through objects from a world threatened by chaos and uncertainty, an intimacy we find and take pleasure in. Curator: A quiet statement, perhaps? That an artifact intended to cast light, even in the dark times ahead, retains a place in the everyday imagination? I like that thought. Editor: Me too. This little candlestick is surprisingly resonant.