Side Chair c. 1936

Editor: Here we have Arthur Johnson’s “Side Chair” from around 1936. It's a pencil drawing on paper, and it feels very precise and technical, like an architectural blueprint. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Well, immediately, I'm struck by the interplay between the purely functional and the potentially symbolic. Chairs, across cultures, have signified authority, rest, and even judgement. Editor: Like a throne, or a judge's bench? Curator: Precisely. But here, stripped down to its skeletal form, what symbols do we see at play? The paper is toned like parchment, aged; the chair as archetype. Consider how Johnson uses line to create not just shape, but a sense of almost classical form—the curves in the legs, the suggested ornament on the back. What historical periods are evoked by this design? Editor: I see some art deco, maybe a bit of the Queen Anne style in those curved legs? But overall it looks simplified, streamlined. Curator: Exactly. Johnson is synthesizing traditions, then, showing the cultural memory embedded in something as quotidian as a chair. Note, too, the absent sitter. Whose body should occupy the design? Editor: I hadn’t thought of it that way. So, the chair isn't just an object, but almost a stand-in for the person who would use it? Curator: Precisely. It becomes a vessel, an emblem awaiting its occupant, resonating with potential narratives and societal echoes. What do you think Johnson aimed to convey through that visual strategy? Editor: I now see a fusion of function, style, and symbolism. Thanks; I'm noticing the chair--and art--in an entirely different light now. Curator: Wonderful! The aim, then, is accomplished!