Knife Box c. 1940

LeRoy Griffith made this watercolor of a Knife Box. This kind of image belongs to a tradition of documentary realism, one that began in the 1930s and 40s, which aimed to record American design. We might ask why such everyday objects came to be seen as worthy of artistic attention. The answer lies in the wider social changes of the time. With industrialization and mass production, handcrafted items became increasingly rare and were seen as emblems of a simpler, more authentic past. Projects like the Index of American Design, with which Griffith was associated, sought to preserve this heritage by documenting and celebrating the ingenuity and skill of American craftspeople. To appreciate this image fully, we might research the social and economic conditions that gave rise to the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as the role of institutions like the Index of American Design in shaping our understanding of art. Art here is contingent on social and institutional context.