Doorframe 1840 - 1860

Curator: Well, this strikes me as something both elegant and incredibly sturdy, wouldn't you agree? Editor: Absolutely. It has an immediate feeling of handcrafted care, although the rather plain-looking door in the center is oddly jarring. I'd like to know more about it. Curator: Of course. What we have here is a "Doorframe," believed to have been created anonymously sometime between 1840 and 1860. Currently, it's part of the collection at The Art Institute of Chicago. It's made entirely of carved wood. Editor: Carved wood. It’s beautiful but practical too. Look at the openwork, the patterns that are chiseled away allowing the wood to become almost lace. I wonder about the conditions of its making; how long would it take an artisan to produce such ornate work? Was it a collaboration, a piece intended for sale or for personal use? Curator: It speaks volumes about folk-art practices during that era. Given its date, one can speculate about where it stood, what communities existed near its place of construction, and how its maker or owner interacted with an emergent America. Editor: And its later life; an anonymous maker raises a fascinating question of institutional visibility. How did this "Doorframe" come to reside within a major art museum? What politics shaped its inclusion? It might have shifted through many collections to achieve museum display. Curator: It highlights how an everyday functional object has been elevated to art, how labour can be aestheticized within particular political systems. Was it an object initially intended for wealth, for middle-class appeal, or the wealthy looking to simpler craft as an expression of wealth? Editor: Such details are not immediately evident. What endures however, is that our perspectives frame our readings—allowing a new view, shifting contexts across time and social space. Curator: Exactly! Whether rooted in the specifics of its production, or its journey through institutional spaces, our perspectives can enrich our understandings immeasurably.