Umbrella Stand c. 1939

Curator: Well, here’s an artwork by Herman Bader, "Umbrella Stand," made around 1939, simply a pencil drawing. What's your initial take on it? Editor: Oh, it feels…nostalgic. There’s something about the ornate details rendered in pencil that evokes a rainy afternoon in a bygone era. I almost hear the dripping umbrellas. Curator: Absolutely, there is a real echo of its period in the ornamental features. Umbrella stands, during that time, became almost a symbol of bourgeois domesticity, situated in the entrance hall as the threshold of home. This specific representation also shows a particular consciousness of functionality blended with aesthetic pleasure, very evocative. Editor: Threshold...that's spot on! The hall as a transition, the umbrella stand holding the vestiges of the outside world. Its circular forms—that ring up top and the basin below—feel womb-like somehow, safe harbors. I also keep wanting it to be taller. It has an unusual compressed composition. Curator: The symmetry, so deliberately rendered, offers visual reassurance—a balanced household, perhaps? In terms of function, there would have been an expectation, for owners of these stands, to find not just practical usage but status within it, communicating societal mores, and their place within a system of class. The visual vocabulary spoke clearly. Editor: Status, yes! It is saying: "We are civilized people; we take our wet umbrellas and place them elegantly HERE!" It’s almost funny how much gravity is given to something so practical. But there is something beautifully sad about it too, don’t you think? Pencil as a medium does give it a faded aura, it lacks a gaudy brashness. Curator: Certainly a reflection on transience, maybe unintentional given its nature as a record drawing. It shows how material objects accumulate layers of meaning—social, personal, historical. They hold quiet stories that reflect us. Editor: Right! It makes you think about the stories *you* might accumulate one day. About the items in your hall, what a future image of them would say. Thank you. Curator: My pleasure. Until next time!