Wallpaper Used as Bandbox Covering c. 1937

Editor: Here we have "Wallpaper Used as Bandbox Covering," dating back to around 1937. It's a watercolor and drawing, credited to Albert Levone. I'm struck by its nostalgic charm; it's so gentle and evokes a strong sense of simpler times. What leaps out at you when you look at it? Curator: The past wasn't simple, you know? Just looked simpler in retrospect – a selective amnesia we all indulge in, darling! What tickles me here is how the humdrum – wallpaper – aspires to be fine art. There's this tiny longing, an aspiration humming beneath the surface. I'd ask if it sees itself as a landscape, genre painting, or both, but mostly I’d ask: Does the little guy fishing know he's on wallpaper? Editor: That’s a great point! He does seem rather unaware of the broader context, doesn’t he? I was so caught up in the idyllic scene that I completely missed the… almost performative aspect of its folksiness? The painting also looks intentionally naive… Curator: It's utterly enchanting how a design intended for fleeting attention – something to be plastered on a wall then fade into the background – is now framed and studied. Has the wallpaper finally escaped the bandbox? Editor: Right! So maybe Levone wanted to elevate the wallpaper aesthetic, turn the background into the foreground. He almost rescued the mundane. That is a curious and, perhaps, intentional role reversal! I like that a lot! Curator: I'll ask it where it wants to hang now - which house and which room will take it? Above a fireplace perhaps? Ah well, a lot of existential queries for some old wallpaper!