Table (Drop-leaf) 1936

Editor: We are looking at “Table (Drop-leaf),” a 1936 mixed-media drawing by Nicholas Acampora. It depicts a rather elegant mahogany table. The details and shading make it look very precise and measured, like a technical drawing almost. How do you read this piece? Curator: The very act of representing domestic objects, like this table, reflects an interesting impulse, particularly in 1936. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression. What does it mean to painstakingly render an object that might have been beyond the reach of many families? Editor: So you are thinking about the social and economic context? Curator: Absolutely. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. This drawing speaks to the aspiration for a certain lifestyle, one that may have seemed increasingly distant to many Americans. Think about the role design played, too. Furniture wasn't just functional, it was a statement. Do you think the artist intended it to be aspirational? Editor: It’s possible. Or maybe he simply wanted to capture the elegance of the object itself, and design holds the same interest as fine art. Was this kind of object depiction common in that period? Curator: Actually, it was more common than you might think. Government programs at the time employed artists to document American design. This could be part of a broader cultural project. The politics of imagery are always fascinating. We should think, what purpose this kind of representation could play, and for whom? Editor: I never thought about it in that context. It does make you wonder who was supposed to see these images, and what impact it was meant to have. Thanks, it offers me another reading lens through which to look at art. Curator: Exactly. And thinking about art in that way allows us to recognize how it continues to impact our daily lives.