Oven Scraper c. 1939

Curator: I'm struck by how somber and utilitarian Jacob Lipkin makes this domestic object feel in his drawing, "Oven Scraper," created around 1939. The subject matter feels… humble, almost forgotten. Editor: Precisely. Lipkin chose to depict the scraper in pencil, an everyday tool rendered with what appears to be equally commonplace materials. We see an object of labor immortalized in… graphite and paper. This begs the question of its intended audience, its use, its worth to the contemporary buyer? Curator: Yes, the realism is striking, but is that the true importance or focus? Look closer, and you’ll observe something quite intriguing. The form is simplified, archetypal. The triangular blade with that distinctive handle calls to mind a primitive tool, almost something one might find on an archaeological dig, far older than it actually is. The artist highlights something beyond merely domestic toil, something more essential. Editor: It certainly does make you think about other eras, though let's think about this rendering in terms of its manufacture and labor: consider the scraper itself, designed to clean an oven that enables bread to bake—essential for sustaining labor itself, and therefore tied into the cycle of production. Now it is carefully observed through art and put back into our sphere of analysis and ultimately, potentially commerce. The pencil marks indicate its roughhewn material of wood and metallic scraper which would have both been made and used repeatedly, linking maker to user, and user to baker and their food's consumption. It suggests endless making, consuming and needing the other, from labor's means, the objects made and labor maintained through it all. Curator: A nice chain to contemplate, but I wonder if the deeper pull isn’t the contrast. It scrapes away burnt remains, cleansing for a fresh start. Maybe a link to hearth and home – safety in chaos; nourishment following hardship. It feels less about a singular task and more like a silent guardian. Editor: An oven scraper as a guardian of the home and hearth? Interesting – so an elevated status indeed through this image. Although perhaps that is indeed just down to labor made holy and cyclical? Food and work and back to labor once more. I will take note of how its 'domestic labor cycle' iconography could appeal at any time. Curator: Indeed, "Oven Scraper" really encapsulates that fascinating interplay of object, symbol, and emotion. Editor: And moreover how it demonstrates value in the 'thing', and the labor which that facilitates in terms of making. It forces us to contemplate material making.