Settee and Folding Bed 1935 - 1942

Curator: Here we have a pencil drawing by Kurt Melzer, titled "Settee and Folding Bed", dating from sometime between 1935 and 1942. Editor: My first thought? Functional beauty! There’s something so appealing about seeing design laid bare like this. It reminds me of those anatomical drawings, where you see all the muscles and bones that make a body move. Curator: Precisely. Melzer gives us multiple perspectives. There’s the settee in its conventional form, but below it we see the skeletal framework. Even a detail showing the "bed in open position." It's all meticulously rendered on paper, a marriage of practicality and… what would you call it? Revelation? Editor: It’s certainly revealing! You know, beds, or settees, are potent symbols in art, really in all of culture. They are where we’re born and sometimes where we die; definitely where we dream and heal and... well, a lot happens there. So seeing it diagrammed, objectified, does have this curious distancing effect, while also intensifying the object’s aura, if that makes sense. Curator: I follow you. The starkness amplifies its significance. I mean, consider the period – the late ‘30s and early ‘40s. It was a time of intense economic hardship, followed by global conflict. Space was at a premium; furniture had to serve multiple purposes. Editor: Right! Utility elevated. This drawing transforms a humble settee-bed into almost an emblem of resilience and ingenuity. A Transformer before its time. Curator: Absolutely. Melzer has managed to distill a moment in history through something as simple as a piece of furniture. The precision and delicate coloring elevates it from mere blueprint to a tender portrait of the possibilities present in design, offering us a peek into another world by taking into our own, just for a bit. Editor: Yes! We are reminded how even the most seemingly basic objects in our lives can harbor stories, symbolize eras, speak volumes with only pencil lines on aged paper. It feels hopeful, this image. Curator: I think so too.