Pitcher c. 1936

Editor: This is Ella Josephine Sterling's "Pitcher," likely from around 1936, created as a drawing. There’s a starkness to its simplicity – just a pitcher, centered. It feels so isolated. How do you interpret this work, looking at it as a whole? Curator: The isolation you perceive is compelling. Vessels, especially pitchers, have been powerful symbols for centuries, carrying connotations of nurturing, sustenance, but also potential emptiness. Notice how the intense blue draws your eye and also confines your perception? The color holds both serenity and melancholy, the same duality inherent in human emotion. Editor: That's interesting, how the color impacts it so heavily. I initially just saw the blue as a practical choice to show a blue object, but your point about the duality really opens it up. What memories or concepts do you think Sterling was attempting to connect through this simple, but visually strong, symbol? Curator: Given its time period, right before the Second World War, the pitcher perhaps silently refers to domesticity soon to be disrupted. The potential disruption and a feeling of fragile peace might be visual keys, especially in times of social anxiety. Consider how domestic items shift their symbolic value according to historical moments, embodying the collective feelings attached to daily life. Editor: That’s a really intriguing thought about the anxieties of pre-war life seeping into something as simple as a pitcher drawing. It's no longer just a still life. Curator: Exactly! It demonstrates how everyday objects are quietly steeped in the cultural context of their creation, and viewing art is viewing the cultural memory embedded in art!