Pole Screen and Candlestand 1935 - 1942

Curator: What we have here is a drawing entitled "Pole Screen and Candlestand," created by Elizabeth Curtis between 1935 and 1942. Editor: It’s…deliberate. Utilitarian almost. Like a technical blueprint someone doodled on while they were supposed to be calculating stress tolerances. Gives me that quiet, functional vibe. Curator: Functional indeed. The artist focused on a very linear style here, the line as the fundamental means of conveying information about objects designed for everyday use. Note the detailed measurements annotated. Editor: The precision is compelling, though! Look at the different base structures; it's a celebration of geometric form through very minimal mark making, almost like she is mapping out something. Curator: And the social context. A pole screen and a candlestand speaks volumes about leisure and domestic life in that era. About how people illuminated and decorated their spaces, also offering practical needs to women with such tools for needlework for example. These objects were part of a lifestyle now largely obsolete, reproduced as a very interesting set of drawings here, no? Editor: Totally obsolete. But also, you know, the shadows, I'm imagining candlelight flickering behind that oval screen, projecting wild shapes. I start inventing stories around those imagined lights, do you ever get that? Like these drawings as the first glimpse of imagined playhouses or parlors from which other things might emanate. Curator: I do appreciate your sense of the theatrical, and while I find the domestic and material significance central, I acknowledge there is a certain imaginative potential at work. The artist focused closely on the forms and their relation; an objectness revealed through detailed technical and creative design processes. Editor: I still think of stories… But the historical anchor, that's what really keeps me here. It’s amazing that these very functional sketches also provoke emotional connections.