Needlepoint Picture c. 1937

Editor: So this is “Needlepoint Picture,” around 1937, by Jules Lefevere. The use of textile really makes this portrait feel unexpectedly domestic, even intimate. What do you make of this merging of craft and portraiture? Curator: It's compelling because it challenges the hierarchy of art forms. We see 'fibre-art' typically associated with domestic labor, elevated to the realm of portraiture, which historically conveyed status. The deliberate use of needlepoint subverts notions of high art and its typical consumers, doesn't it? Editor: It really does. Considering its scale, did Lefevere choose this medium for artistic accessibility or maybe because he liked the way a traditional craft rendered a traditional portrait? Curator: We have to consider the time: 1937. Mass production was transforming society and domesticity. Was Lefevere engaging in a nostalgic practice? A resistance to industrialized art making? How does the labor intensive process speak to this shift in art? Is it accessible at all? Is it making some ironic statement? Editor: The pixelated effect that the needlepoint creates does feel like an odd foreshadowing of digital art! Curator: Exactly! And it forces us to consider labor - the painstaking effort involved, in stark contrast to mechanical reproduction. Where does value truly lie? In the final image or the intensive, unseen hours that are required for the making of the work? Editor: This piece makes you consider art as work and labor, things I usually wouldn’t think about, thanks for the insights. Curator: It does invite some challenging questions! Hopefully the perspective is interesting for other people as well.