Cast and Wrought Iron Gate c. 1936

Arelia Arbo made this print of a wrought iron gate. With it, Arbo offers us an understated commentary on the social structures of her time. Consider the gate itself: its very purpose is to demarcate public from private space, setting boundaries between those who have access and those who do not. The artist has chosen a section that is purely decorative, and that offers no barrier. Made in the late 19th or early 20th century, it evokes the grand entrances of bourgeois homes and manicured gardens during the Gilded Age. We see an evocation of prosperity and exclusivity, where wealth and status were conspicuously displayed through architectural details. We might look at Arbo’s choice of subject through the lens of historical archives, property records, and social commentaries of the period to more fully understand its subtle critique. By representing a gate that is both ornamental and non-functional, Arbo subtly questions the real barriers that existed in society.