Plate 42: Painted Chest Design: From Portfolio "Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico" 1935 - 1942

Editor: This watercolor and acrylic-paint drawing is titled "Plate 42: Painted Chest Design: From Portfolio 'Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico,'" and dates from between 1935 and 1942. The flat colour and decorative figures remind me of folk art, but it's clearly a design for something else. What strikes you about this design? Curator: As a materialist, my focus is on how this drawing connects to its potential real-world application. We're looking at a design *intended* for a painted chest, right? The medium is inexpensive, craft-based – watercolor, acrylic paint. It suggests accessibility in its production and, perhaps, consumption. Editor: So, you're saying the choice of materials signals a practical intention? Curator: Precisely. And, we must consider the labor involved. Was this artist working solo, perhaps selling designs? Or part of a larger workshop focused on mass-produced folk items, embracing local aesthetic and regionalism to tap into larger market economies? Who would have painted the chest, and who might have purchased and used the final piece? What can this painted design tell us about class and consumption during the New Deal era, if the proposed object was indeed realized? Editor: That's fascinating. I was caught up in the folksy, handmade aesthetic, but I see that it's more about a chain of production. The means and intent embedded into a chest are truly remarkable, considering art as embedded in a network. Curator: Exactly. Focusing on process and materials, and challenging the traditional boundaries can lead us to rich insight! It reveals far more about society and economy than just the immediate visuals.