Don Quixote 

Editor: This is Gustave Dore's "Don Quixote," rendered with graphite and pen. I'm struck by the intense detail achieved solely through line work. It's so intricate! What's your perspective on this image? Curator: The density of marks isn't just detail; it's about the labor involved. Think of the engravers translating Dore's vision to woodblocks for mass production. This image speaks to the material realities of image-making in the 19th century—the demand for illustration and the means of satisfying that demand through specialized labor. It was reproducible for a burgeoning market. Editor: So, you're focusing on how it was made and consumed rather than, say, the artistry itself? Curator: Not to discount artistry, but to see it in relation to industrial practices. Dore wasn't just an artist, but a designer within a system of production. How does understanding that system inform our view of the image’s narrative? Who got to consume it, and at what cost? Editor: That's a good question. The figure of Don Quixote feels more like a commodity here. But isn't he satirizing these things already? Curator: Perhaps, but the reproducibility also amplifies it! It is both satire and commercial product. It underscores the tensions between artistic expression and mass culture inherent in his era. Editor: I hadn't thought of the role of reproductive labor in disseminating artistic stories at the time! Seeing it this way makes me think about how even rebellions are easily commodified, even back then. Curator: Precisely. Considering the materiality of art encourages us to investigate social and economic currents of the moment, how they touch not only on the distribution but on the significance of artistic creation itself.