Pitcher 1935 - 1942

Curator: Michael Trekur created this work, "Pitcher," sometime between 1935 and 1942, using watercolor and colored pencil. Editor: Immediately striking! The pale sea-green color, with those delicate pink stripes—it has a lovely, almost dreamlike quality, as though seen through old glass itself. Curator: That's insightful. Glass often symbolizes fragility and transparency, inviting us to look beneath the surface, which seems fitting given the cultural context of the interwar period during which it was made. What is being “held” or preserved in this particular “pitcher?” Editor: True, though I also find myself wondering about the materials he chose for representation versus the 'real thing.' What statement is he trying to make by translating the slippery glass into a comparatively rough medium like colored pencil and watercolor? Was glass expensive at the time? And what social meanings could this have taken on at the time? Curator: Interesting. Glassware in that era did carry associations of domesticity and, perhaps, even idealized notions of the home. However, notice how Trekur depicts swirling, almost organic lines within the body of the pitcher. Those forms hint at something more complex. Perhaps that reflects hidden emotional states or unsettled times, an undercurrent to the superficial presentation. Editor: I’m intrigued. Looking at it from the vantage of today's industrialization, this pitcher looks as though it’s machine-made rather than handcrafted. Perhaps this has implications for mass consumption and production standards that may have been adopted in America after the Depression. I wonder where the real one came from... Curator: The spirals feel like a departure from any sort of straightforward object representation. He is not merely representing a pitcher, but some intangible feelings relating to cultural trends and values through familiar visual objects. Editor: All things considered, the interplay of material reality and symbolic intent definitely gives this piece a lasting power. Curator: Indeed, reflecting on it this way opens even deeper perspectives on a deceptively simple image.