Jug

Editor: This is Yolande Delasser’s "Jug," dating from around 1940, a watercolor and drawing on paper depicting, unsurprisingly, a ceramic jug. I'm struck by the sketch-like quality and the almost ghostly presence of the birds on the jug’s surface. How do you read this piece? Curator: This piece immediately situates itself within the broader history of depicting everyday objects, particularly in the context of wartime America. The image’s flat, almost diagrammatic quality removes it from being a simple still life. We see not just a jug, but a *representation* of a jug, consciously mediated. Given the period, do you think it’s just an item or is it representing something else? Editor: Interesting...maybe something more domestic? It almost feels like an idealized representation of simple, rural life during a time of turmoil. The jug feels… nostalgic. Curator: Exactly. It speaks to the values that were often mobilized in wartime propaganda and imagery. The ceramic jug, rendered in delicate watercolor, connects to ideas of home, handcrafted goods, and a kind of idealized American past. The inclusion of birds, and even the fragment of the handle depicted above, serves as a sort of visual index. But who was this woman, do you know? Did the artist produce work along this same subject consistently? Editor: That is definitely something to think about... I can dig further to check on her broader ouevre. It's more than just a drawing of a jug, it is the meaning it carries culturally and historically! Thanks, I now see many different doors opening to interpret this object. Curator: Exactly. It's about understanding the cultural work this image performs, how it reflects and perhaps reinforces certain values and beliefs of its time, within and outside museums.