Mantel Looking Glass c. 1937

Curator: It’s like a little stage set, isn’t it? All gilt and anticipation... gives me the shivers just thinking of what kind of reflection might appear in that looking glass. Editor: Arthur Johnson conceived this "Mantel Looking Glass" as a drawing around 1937. It employs watercolor and pencil, envisioning something grand yet also domestic, tied, as the title indicates, to the architecture of a fireplace. Curator: Watercolor… imagine the delicate hand required! And the patience! It's that blue trellis-work against the creamy background, a perfect whisper of formality and then the blank canvas. I feel like it teases me to fill in that void. Editor: The mirror’s blankness seems deliberate, almost defiant, particularly within this classicized frame. One sees echoes of academic art and design principles but divorced from the weight of history or narrative. Curator: See, but the emptiness is what calls to me. The blankness… a challenge! It almost begs to be adorned, filled, brought to life. It makes the frame, ornate as it is, thrum with potential. Almost theatrical! Editor: And who would be seeing their reflection here? The placement above a fireplace would have social connotations. Is it meant to reflect the gathered elite? A display of wealth or aspiration? Curator: Perhaps... but I think also intimacy, daily life. The quick glance on the way out, adjusting a scarf… the furtive check before an invitation! It’s funny, but in rendering this, Arthur Johnson captured an ordinary ritual but froze it as an architectural concept. Editor: Absolutely, Johnson takes this classical idea, an archetype, and translates it with watercolors and pencil. The choices are interesting and, as you note, transform a ritual object into something of an aesthetic idea in its own right. Curator: I’d call it more than an aesthetic idea; there's almost a hint of sadness to me; a looking glass promising answers that we each have to find ourselves. Editor: A perfect interpretation for an object created at the twilight of the Great Depression. Now I'll have to reflect on all of this much more. Thanks!