Arm Chair 1935 - 1942

Curator: This work, created by Edna C. Rex between 1935 and 1942, is titled "Arm Chair." It's a pencil drawing on paper. Editor: It feels…incomplete, almost like a ghostly memory of furniture. I'm immediately drawn to the plush, almost regal red of the cushion set against the otherwise muted tones. Curator: It’s interesting you say "incomplete". Perhaps that reflects the function of this type of drawing, which would have served as an atelier sketch in preparation for a crafted product. This wasn't intended as a finished artwork per se, but rather a visualization or proposition. The chair appears rather elegant, with detailed wood inlays. The upholstered seat suggests bourgeois comfort, evoking associations with domesticity and perhaps, a certain social class. Editor: That emphasis on "bourgeois comfort" is palpable, isn’t it? There’s an inherent tension in the quiet elegance—a tension heightened by the artist's technique. The precision of the lines captures the aspirational values of that era. It feels less like a mere depiction of a chair and more like a commentary on the aesthetics of privilege during that specific historical period. The shadow version of the chair below becomes another form in the gendered dimensions of space. Curator: Absolutely. There’s a realness here, not necessarily to the object itself, but to the historical moment. One imagines these designs emerging at a specific point, between world wars. They hint at a culture obsessed with aspiration and elegance but also possibly overshadowed by social tensions. The way Edna Rex’s design evokes these sentiments with something as quotidian as an armchair is pretty remarkable, wouldn't you say? It transforms the ordinary into a mirror of society. Editor: I agree, I think the chair presents a moment of pause. This simple scene encourages us to reconsider design not only in a historical context, but also in its social implications. Even something as seemingly innocuous as furniture carries its own kind of political weight and narrative.