Drawer Pull c. 1936

Curator: Janet Riza created this watercolor drawing, titled "Drawer Pull," around 1936. Editor: The level of detail for a preliminary sketch is striking! And even though the palette is quite muted, there’s something precious and restrained about it. Almost melancholic. Curator: It is tempting to view this as merely preparatory, but perhaps that melancholic impression speaks to its status as a *proposal.* Think about it – what were the social and material conditions under which such an intricately designed object might be brought into being during the Depression era? There's a tension there. Editor: Yes, these classical urns, the garlands… there's a visual language of opulence that collides intriguingly with its function. A drawer pull is so small, so everyday. What are your thoughts about the symbolism of urns? Is there any relationship between how those urns have been represented symbolically through painting and sculpture since antiquity? Curator: These motifs have accumulated so much cultural baggage. By the 1930s, urns had shifted from emblems of ancient glory and commemoration into mass-produced decorative tropes, increasingly rendered in materials far removed from their antique counterparts. I think Riza might be highlighting the democratization and debasement of formerly revered signs through commercial reproduction. Editor: Interesting. The repetition in its design could signal a dilution of the urn as a meaningful object into mere ornament, with only traces of what it had previously come to represent. In some cultures the vase as symbol even reflects concepts of emptiness and wholeness and abundance. All these things embedded in the drawer pull of a common household object. Curator: Absolutely, it urges us to scrutinize our own acts of selection and consumption, acknowledging how social currents become interwoven into even the smallest details of our material world. This isn't just design, it's a quiet commentary. Editor: You've given me so much to consider, framing it as an intimate artifact of mass production, a memento of fleeting social tensions, as contained in its small scale. Curator: Precisely. Material realities imbued with cultural significance… an enduring puzzle for the careful observer.