Platter - "Lake George" c. 1936

Editor: Here we have Helmut Hiatt's "Platter - 'Lake George,'" crafted around 1936 from earthenware and charcoal. It's such a striking combination – a landscape drawing, seemingly transferred onto a functional ceramic object. It really makes you consider its purpose; it's decorative art, yes, but the landscape makes it feel like something more. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: What’s interesting here is the displacement of “high art,” such as landscape drawing, onto a mass-producible object like a platter. Consider the labor involved – the mining of clay, the factory production of the ceramic form, the hand-application of the transfer drawing, the firing process. Then we think about its intended use; where would such a platter be displayed? Who is the intended consumer and what might this object signify within their domestic sphere? Editor: So it's less about the depicted landscape itself, and more about the process and social implications? Curator: Precisely. The Lake George landscape becomes a commodity, mediated through the ceramic production. Even the charcoal drawing element. How does using charcoal, a readily available material with inherent physical qualities affect the nature of the drawing, particularly when transferred to earthenware? It becomes a design, something to be consumed. Editor: I see. It's challenging the idea of art existing separately from everyday life. Bringing nature, idealized nature in this case, into the dining room. Curator: And, by extension, into the cycle of consumption and production. Who is profiting, whose labor is involved, what resources are required to transform this idealized landscape into an object of material culture? Those questions are key. Editor: This definitely makes me think about how we consume art and objects, how the making of art can become more important than the final look of it. Thanks, I will never look at landscape design the same way again. Curator: Nor I; each viewing prompts more exploration and that is the power of materiality.