Writing Desk and Table 1935 - 1942

Curator: This is Henry Meyers' "Writing Desk and Table," dating from sometime between 1935 and 1942. It's a watercolor and drawing, giving us an elevation view of the piece, along with smaller diagrams indicating measurements. Editor: That striking red color immediately grabs you. It feels almost…regal. It elevates a simple object, a desk, to something symbolic. A seat of power, maybe? Or intense concentration. Curator: Well, given the period, and Meyer's background as a furniture designer associated with the Federal Art Project, it is more likely he sought to provide affordable quality furnishings to a wider population, rather than evoking any exclusive royal status. These items offered tangible and decorative appeal as functional forms. Editor: Even so, red carries powerful connotations. Red ochre has marked significant sites of ceremony or record since the paleolithic. Do you think he chose it consciously? Curator: The execution suggests practical considerations reigned over elaborate symbolic intent. Look how the medium and details are prioritized over refined artistry. The architectural rendering quality conveys information, pure and simple. We cannot definitively impute some overt intent from the symbolic resonance that color red invariably carries through time. Editor: True, though one sees such pieces replicated over time as antiques that carry echoes from past usage in later cultural settings: This kind of wooden form, enlivened by rich reds, brings me to ancestral parlors, places filled with memory and passed-down wisdoms. Don’t you see that? Curator: Perhaps. However, consider what such furniture actually signifies. Accessible production via new-deal programs democratizing the art market of functional items seems a bit at odds with high bourgeois settings steeped in traditions that typically defined who could even consume high end crafted artwork or collect unique things in previous eras. It also highlights a crucial public purpose the desk embodies when considering social access to material culture generally speaking in that time. Editor: Well, that just adds a new layer to the object's story for those coming across something similar in our present, isn’t it? History and individual narratives intertwined. Curator: Absolutely. Considering that social landscape shapes our understanding in unexpected ways! Editor: Quite insightful, offering new layers as always, which help deepen the symbolic associations that inevitably bubble forth...