Untitled 

Curator: Immediately, the shawl framing her face strikes me as so central to the work. Its swirling floral patterns, the soft cascade of its fringe…the artist really makes it a part of her character. Editor: Let's consider this "Untitled" piece more closely. It is, as you mentioned, dominated by a portrait of a woman, rendered in watercolor by Harrison Fisher in 1909. The shawl itself seems quite intricately worked. Who do you suppose made it, and under what conditions? Curator: Precisely! It prompts you to ponder on these themes. Think about the cultural implications around female representation, especially at the time. I see an interplay of control and presentation, where clothing becomes a crafted boundary, as well as part of a commodity chain. Editor: True, and what do you make of the almost ethereal application of pigment, so subtly employed as to give a sense of fragility and ephemeral beauty? See how he deploys delicate washes to create form and volume; light seemingly filters through the very fibres of the fabric itself. It reminds me of classical portraiture. Curator: Do you see how it ties back to marketing of the artwork, its reproduction and sale as prints and postcards? We must remember this aesthetic object was enmeshed with its commodity context: paper quality, printing processes and widespread consumption by women. The portrait thus became embedded with class and status. Editor: It does give a strong hint of longing or even fleetingness to the portrait that I would describe more directly as romanticism, as does the way light reflects of the high parts of the face while shadowing its angles. Curator: This dialogue highlights how different yet insightful, methodologies intersect to reveal both what art means, and how meaning can change depending on one’s position. Editor: A wonderful reminder to engage with artworks through both our senses and our critical faculties.