Salt Cellar c. 1936

This is Frank Fumagalli's 'Salt Cellar', a drawing made with graphite and colored pencil. It invites us to consider the public role of design in shaping the everyday lives of ordinary people. Fumagalli was active in the late 19th century and, throughout the 20th century, a period in which the decorative arts became more closely associated with industrial production. The image creates meaning through the common cultural references of domestic life. The materiality of salt and its role in cultural history have roots in geography, historical events, social class, political movements, or economic structures. The drawing itself might have been a proposal for manufacture. Understanding the social and institutional context of art is the historian’s task. Researching economic changes in production methods, as well as design patents, will help reveal the meaning of art as something contingent on its social and institutional context.