Side Chair c. 1940

Curator: Frank Wenger created this piece, simply titled "Side Chair," around 1940 using pencil and paper. Editor: The drawing feels austere, almost mournful. The chair, stark against the cream background, looks so formal, like it belongs in a somber courtroom, maybe? Curator: Let's consider what a seemingly simple object like a chair represents in broader social contexts. Who gets to sit, where, and why? These questions intersect with power dynamics based on class, gender, and race. Furniture, though often overlooked, carries narratives of privilege and exclusion. This particular chair reminds me of designs of the Federal period, invoking themes of order and nation building, yet who was truly included in this new nation? Editor: Wow, heavy thoughts for a little drawing! I just see a lonely chair waiting for someone who never shows up. But your ideas make me think of stage sets. Maybe this drawing is for theater or film design? I imagine it as a prop on a stage where some legal drama unfolds with characters arguing for equality, justice or something? Curator: Wenger worked during a period of significant upheaval with The Great Depression and the dawn of World War II and while his signature does appear in the lower right it is reasonable to assume the somber nature of this work as influenced by the overall period context. Considering those influences, perhaps there is another point to the loneliness in this depiction, that of loss and those we have lost over time? Editor: Ah, well that brings me back to my sadness again. This dialogue brings me full circle, from simple lonely observation to social injustice and, back to where I started. The circle of the seated...so deep for something so...wooden! Curator: I think you bring up an interesting point as well, what we see and what influences us based on context might allow some, based on preconditioned views, to find what they expect or fear to find. Editor: Perhaps it's just a nice drawing of a chair… No, too late now; it will forever be so much more, won't it?