Pitcher c. 1936

Curator: Isn't this Pitcher from about 1936 just the sleekest thing you've ever seen? It's all watercolor and drawing. Editor: My first thought is heavy. Almost brutally so. Is that how a pitcher should feel? Like a tiny fortress of function? Curator: That heaviness, it almost makes the simple function—pouring—seem almost ceremonial, doesn't it? The way the artist captured the light gives it this sheen of expensive liquor, too. Editor: True, there is that interplay of opacity and slight translucence achieved with watercolour and perhaps charcoal. Notice how the formal vertical striations contrast with the curving baroque swirls near its base. It introduces dynamic tension between restraint and lavishness. Curator: It's all quite mesmerizing. And think about the historical moment. The '30s – tough times. This feels like a refusal to just give in to dullness. It's glamorous despite itself, don't you think? Editor: Absolutely. The tension continues from dark colour and how it pushes us to see the simple form and elegance. It reminds me of some contemporary minimalist sculptures that emphasize shape through sheer weight and presence. Curator: It makes you want to fill it with something colorful – bright juice or wine that it catches the sun. This water colour brings me back in time to those very specific mid-century moments. Sipping cocktails, imagining parties and feeling almost lost in memory. Editor: For me it brings up how domestic items can take on personalities and emotional depth if presented from slightly unusual or unexpected angles; and of course, what one might call its semiotic payload that it carries culturally speaking. A jug might never simply be a jug once depicted, but it is turned into the vessel of larger social expression. Curator: The artist totally transformed everyday object into a mood piece. So wonderful. Editor: Quite so. A lesson in observing everyday structures with deeper regard.