In the Country Winter, from the Magic Changing Cards series (N223) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company 1889

Editor: This is "In the Country Winter," a graphite and pencil print from 1889, made by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. The bleak landscape really makes me think about the hard work of rural life. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: Well, I immediately consider the context: it’s a tobacco card, essentially advertising. Instead of focusing on individual genius, we should look at the industrialized process that produced countless copies. Think about the paper itself, the graphite mined and processed – how does the material production inform the image's content? Editor: That's interesting, I hadn’t considered it from that angle. So you’re saying the *making* of it is more important than what it depicts? Curator: Not *more* important, but inseparable. The image shows a man and horse hauling wood. Consider the labor involved, not just in the scene depicted, but in creating the image itself. How does that repetitive labor of the printmaking process mirror the cyclical labor of rural life represented? Editor: I see what you mean. The mass production changes how we perceive the value of both the art and the scene, right? It connects art directly to industry and commerce... almost like today's stock images? Curator: Precisely. It democratizes the image, making it accessible, consumable, almost disposable. What implications does that have for our understanding of “art” with a capital A? Is it really so different from those stock images? Editor: I've always looked at art as expressions, but considering it as labor changes my perception. Thank you, that really made me think about this differently! Curator: And thinking about the labor helps ground it in a tangible reality, disrupting the mystique that so often surrounds art, right? Food for thought, indeed.