Sheraton Sideboard c. 1942

Curator: Editor: We're looking at a drawing entitled "Sheraton Sideboard," created around 1942 by Amos C. Brinton, made with pencil, charcoal, and watercolor. It has a surprisingly warm, almost nostalgic mood. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It's fascinating, isn't it? A document of design. The piece has a tender formality that reminds me of slow Sundays and silver polish. I'm curious though – why choose to render this so carefully in these materials when photography was already so widespread? Why archive this piece of furniture in this way? What was Brinton trying to preserve beyond its mere physical form? Editor: Maybe it’s about imbuing the object with a sense of care. A photograph captures the thing, but a drawing captures the artist *looking* at the thing. Curator: Exactly! And what a tender gaze it is! Think about the shadows playing on the wood grain, the brass gleaming… it’s like an elegy for domestic craftsmanship. Don’t you feel as though you could practically smell the beeswax polish and the quiet of the dining room where this piece once lived? Editor: That’s a beautiful way to put it, I can almost imagine it now! Curator: These images prompt questions and a richer story and a reflection on process, than perhaps the object itself can offer in isolation, I love this work all the more, now that we have dug into it. Thank you. Editor: Absolutely! Thank you too, I had a good time digging.