Earrings c. 1939

Curator: These watercolor pendants rendered circa 1939, are by the hand of Frank Fumagalli. My immediate thought goes to their form; these earrings seem like such specific adornments. Editor: They have an antiquated feel, something archeological—not what one would expect of 1939. But I can also sense some kind of organic geometry that suggests modernity too, don't you think? The watercolor lends it an airy almost detached feel. Curator: I think you’ve got it there. These jewels resonate across eras. The earring on the left, with its lobe and teardrop, echoes ancient lunar symbolism; think of fertility goddesses and the primordial feminine. Editor: Precisely. And notice the deliberate imperfections, maybe a function of the watercolor medium—the artist isn’t concerned with replicating mass-produced perfection. Rather, these renderings convey individuality. I'm curious: were these designs intended for mass production? Or was this someone's luxury design portfolio? Curator: Hard to say. There is a folk quality with a kind of brutalism coming into the modern sensibility in that era, and there is obviously cultural transmission. The jewelry form connects wearers through symbols – the shapes of social, spiritual and natural worlds constantly interpreted. I'm wondering how folks might react when adorning the piece itself... what's the story people would want to portray, you know? Editor: That's something impossible to tell. I see the piece being culturally ambiguous; it draws upon timeless patterns in different cultural sensibilities that echo adornment and identity play in complicated times. Maybe Fumagalli tapped into universal motifs in this period, or he was deeply inspired by folk or ancient artifacts... I guess we won’t really know for sure. Curator: We don’t. The earrings themselves evoke a strange simplicity and sophistication simultaneously – an ancient memory reimagined with clean shapes that persist into the modern aesthetic consciousness. Editor: Yes. The question now is if earrings like that can reclaim those complicated aesthetics. A strange dance of fashion, isn't it?