Allen Parker Seated on a Stool 1930

Editor: Here we have Denman Waldo Ross's "Allen Parker Seated on a Stool," a pencil sketch from 1930, housed at the Harvard Art Museums. It's a fairly simple sketch, but I am curious about the artist's process. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The visible construction lines show us the means of producing this image. Rather than obscuring the labor, Ross reveals it. The stool itself is an object of labor, mass-produced probably, supporting Parker in his pose. We might ask, who was Allen Parker, and what labor did he perform? What was his relationship to Ross? Editor: So, you're saying the drawing itself is less about capturing Allen's likeness, and more about the context of its creation? Curator: Precisely! And the materials: graphite and paper, cheap and easily sourced. How does this inform its value? Editor: That's a fascinating way to reframe the artwork. I will definitely think about the materials and the means of production going forward.