Zoar Decorative Painting: "This World and the Next" c. 1938

Curator: Today, we are observing Angelo Bulone's watercolor and colored pencil drawing, dating from around 1938, titled "Zoar Decorative Painting: 'This World and the Next'". Editor: Oh, wow, this is wonderfully strange! It feels like looking at a postcard from someone's very vivid dream. There's this calm landscape, then BAM! Up top, pure ethereal explosion. Curator: The composition divides into earthly and heavenly realms, a popular theme among the Zoarites. They were a German religious community who settled in Ohio in the early 19th century, and these kinds of folk-art-inspired works often reflected their spiritual beliefs and communal values. The placement and use of symbols serve to tell a story of transition from the tangible world to the promise of salvation. Editor: That explains the sort of naive, almost childlike quality. The artist is building up this narrative. It’s very heartfelt. The swirling colors around what I guess is an angel just feel like raw emotion bursting out. A celebration of faith in the face of, I don't know, everything? Curator: Precisely. These drawings are testaments of cultural memory. It depicts the transition from their worldly village of Zoar to the promise of a more transcendental existence. Note, too, how gender and other hierarchies are challenged within communal structures, envisioning a world beyond earthly confines. Editor: Yeah, you see the town nestled into the valley, with its regular roofs and careful gardens, then the hills that seem to heave upward into that… cosmic swirl. It’s charming and really impactful, but that bright angel and explosion contrasts with everything that looks man-made below it. Did they all dream of leaving this neat-but-maybe-restrictive little life for some crazy divine rave in the sky? Curator: That’s an evocative interpretation. Perhaps the imagery also served as a reminder of the communal hope and utopian aspirations, speaking directly to individual viewers, too, of course. Editor: The frame is really fascinating. Almost illuminated, as though painted directly to let us inside the scene. I’m definitely struck by how immediate and human it feels. It makes you question your own path. Curator: Considering the social contexts around artistic creation as a form of resistance can also unlock a lot of our preconceptions. Editor: Okay, now I’m really in it! Definitely some things to chew on!