Toast Rack c. 1938

Curator: This drawing, simply titled "Toast Rack," was created circa 1938 by Bernard Westmacott. It's rendered in ink. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: The piece has an undeniable rigidity to it, wouldn't you say? Almost imposing, considering the everyday nature of its subject. The vertical lines fighting against the horizontal ones create tension. Curator: Absolutely. It's interesting how an object so mundane can become quite architectural through close observation. Consider the toast rack not just as an object but as a symbol of domestic routine, perhaps even the constraints of that routine during the interwar period. It almost presents like some implement or bladed instrument from a medieval torture device. Editor: I'm seeing the interplay between light and shadow—how the parallel lines are delineated on a flat surface. Do you think that's Westmacott’s way of conveying dimension? The lines have a semiotic feel, you could view it as minimalist sculpture laid flat. Curator: He seems concerned less with perfect verisimilitude and more with essence. The almost diagrammatic quality perhaps reveals a sense of order imposed on something as simple as breakfast. Consider, too, the rise in mass production. Perhaps he highlights the simplicity of functional beauty. Editor: I agree with you. In my view, the formal qualities really amplify the utilitarian, everyday nature of the object, turning it into a geometric study and bringing in different elements. I mean, who spends the time making an ink image of this otherwise easily-missed object of toast consumption? Curator: Westmacott's drawing transforms it, revealing its hidden order. We might forget the cultural rituals around even something like making toast. This seemingly simple toast rack encapsulates the societal need for order, the ritualized start to the day. Editor: So, even an object as banal as a toast rack can have its essence captured as geometric order? It appears both rudimentary and subtly pleasing in this drawing. Curator: Exactly! By examining even the most common artifact through art, we can learn things about daily experience, tradition and routine, which would have otherwise gone unseen.