Interior with two Persons 1881 - 1894

Editor: This is "Interior with two Persons" by Sophus Vermehren, made sometime between 1881 and 1894 using oil paint. It has this wonderful intimate feel, but also looks like labor is going on in the same room. How do you interpret this piece? Curator: From a materialist perspective, the monochrome palette here is very revealing. Its seeming lack actually amplifies our understanding about the production of value. Consider the details; the sewing machine, the draped fabric. The domestic labor central to the painting—are they elevated or made mundane through this material reduction? Editor: I see what you mean! The limited color palette forces you to really focus on the textures of the materials themselves – the fabric, the wood… But wouldn't color make them stand out *more*? Curator: That's the thing, isn't it? Vermehren seems less interested in the spectacle of the finished product. This choice directs us back to the process, to the conditions of making, of creation through physical work. Does the monochrome aesthetic make the everyday labour portrayed in this painting almost *invisible*, like the labour itself was in society? Editor: Hmm, that's a clever observation. So, by muting the color, it isn't that it's being elevated, it's being shown, even highlighted in its barest form? Curator: Exactly. We consider how the artist, through material choices and process, directs us not just to representation, but to the economic realities embedded within the image itself. Editor: That makes so much more sense. Thanks, I never would have thought about a nearly grayscale painting as a way to draw focus on materiality! Curator: It is a different way of seeing! It highlights the economic relationships between the artist, their subject, and the society that consumes their art.