Side Chair 1936

Curator: This watercolor and drawing is titled "Side Chair," created in 1936 by Arthur Johnson. Editor: Oh, the simple elegance! It’s like a puritanical fantasy. The stark presentation and those velvety plum tones... someone yearned for comfort within restraint. Curator: That’s a perceptive reading. Consider how furniture design reflects the socio-political context. During the 1930s, functionalism became entwined with aspirations for accessible beauty and a sense of home security. Johnson’s piece, though a rendering of a chair, participates in this history, almost as an advertisement of itself. Editor: Advertisement indeed! The artist seems keen to depict "chair-ness." Notice how the background melts away, prioritizing the depicted chair's Platonic form. No distracting elements, nothing extraneous. But that lone chair in such a light shade does also trigger thoughts of domestic isolation and of gendered exclusion. Curator: Absolutely, you’re hitting on how the home in general can be examined as a constructed site that is inherently not a neutral or accessible space, especially in this moment of American history when the dominant ideology was rooted in patriarchal notions. How are women included or excluded by this seat? Editor: It is interesting to note the complete absence of signs of wear-and-tear. Who does this pristine condition serve and, importantly, who gets to sit here, and what do they see from that vantage point? A wealthy wife awaiting her husband? The velvet seating enhances this sentiment; I could definitely write a poem or two about the color. Curator: It's productive to think through those lenses: gender, race, class... Who gets to be not just visible, but visualized within these representations of domesticity? Considering whose stories get told and whose bodies occupy what spaces continues to be vital to our discussions on contemporary art and design. Editor: Precisely. Seeing a relatively simple image like this can trigger so much awareness. It's like the chair whispers stories of silence, decorum, and unspoken domestic expectations. Curator: Ultimately, looking closely at a piece like this underscores the generative possibility within examining the supposedly mundane artifacts of everyday life. Editor: Absolutely, every object contains hidden universes. A single, silent side chair might just revolutionize your understanding of 20th-century America.