Picture Frame 1940

Editor: This watercolor, dating back to 1940, is entitled "Picture Frame" and was created by Harry Mann Waddell. What catches your eye? Curator: It has a strange sense of organized chaos. The grid structure is so formal, yet those sharp, tooth-like details give it a sort of forbidding quality. Editor: Exactly. Think about how frames traditionally function, providing a decorative border, but this frame looks almost weaponized. Considering it’s a watercolour drawing, that tension feels especially heightened. What does this say about the power dynamics of the framed image versus its environment? Curator: Mmm, I get that. It’s like, “Come closer, admire, but don’t you dare touch.” It makes me think of rigid social structures or even the way institutions guard their collections – or perhaps a critique thereof? The way those cross-like shapes are so repeated it feels compulsive almost. It begs to ask: where did the idea for this originate? Editor: Waddell, as far as records indicate, did not publicly express or discuss socio-political perspectives, making our interpretation of his message ever the more nuanced. I would lean towards examining the function of museums at the time. I think his image presents us with something unsaid about the way we access art, by both protecting and creating limitations on what is framed. Curator: True. And even now, that tension between wanting art to be accessible, but also needing to preserve it, is really a delicate dance. You have to wonder about his creative intention. Was this decorative piece just his sense of creative outlet, or something more subversive? Editor: I believe Waddell's "Picture Frame" offers viewers of our time an opportunity to reflect critically on how institutions determine access, which still heavily impacts contemporary perception of art today. Curator: Right, like, whose gaze is reflected in this 'picture frame'—who is kept in, and more importantly, who is kept out?