Door Stop c. 1939

Curator: Well, doesn't that just stop you in your tracks? Editor: It does actually! There’s something so charming and unexpected about it. I see this little stage, with an antique boot on it – sombre and elegant, despite its apparent stillness. Curator: We’re looking at "Door Stop," a watercolor drawing from around 1939 by Sarkis Erganian. It captures this everyday object, elevating it with delicate precision. You know, it strikes me as this very subtle commentary on function and artistry coexisting. Editor: Right, function meets fashion on a pedestal! Erganian really focuses the attention with the contrast between the somber tone of the doorstop and the lightness of the paper, drawing my gaze right to this peculiar… monument to the mundane? Curator: Exactly! The choice of watercolor is interesting, right? It's normally used for landscapes, delicate portraits… It almost subverts the medium, choosing to depict iron. Do you think there's something about the Great Depression echoed here? Perhaps elevating humbler objects? Editor: I do, yes. These images often cropped up under the Works Progress Administration's art programs, precisely because everyday objects of American life were seen as valuable subjects. It’s the democratization of art, putting ordinary things on display – an echo of larger economic and social concerns, surely. The choice to make it a doorstop… Is it propping up something, or holding it back? Curator: Ooh, I love that! Perhaps both? Stopping the outside world from rushing in? Or maybe a gentler slowing down of what is inevitably coming? Editor: The boot itself is very Victorian in style, but presented so plainly. Erganian isolates it, almost decontextualizes it. It's a functional thing presented in isolation. Curator: Yes! Almost an artifact waiting to be unearthed from domestic life, holding history within its stoic stillness. Editor: There's so much more here than first meets the eye. I feel like I’ve been given pause for thought about the way everyday life shapes art. Curator: Precisely, a charming conversation starter, and one that encourages us to see the potential for beauty in unexpected places.