Dancing Doll c. 1940

Editor: We’re looking at “Dancing Doll,” a mixed-media drawing made around 1940 by Selma Sandler. It depicts a vintage toy, a dancing doll on a platform. There's something a bit melancholy about it, perhaps the doll’s stiff pose or the muted colors. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: Melancholy is a great word for it, yes. It feels like a captured moment of childhood, perhaps tinged with adult reflection. For me, it’s the unexpected combination of media. The piece exists as a drawing, with visible charcoal lines and yet possesses such three-dimensionality. Look at how the wood grain seems to curve with the base! Do you find the visible mechanics endearing, or slightly unsettling? Editor: Endearing, I think, because they make me wonder how it works. What can you tell me about how that influences the feeling? Curator: Right! Sandler highlights not just the *what* – the toy itself – but also the *how*. We see the string, the gears, the suggestion of movement. It pulls back the curtain a bit, showing the artifice in play, the mechanism behind the magic. I think this relates to the Folk-Art influence; not only is it representational, but it calls forth this cultural element, with an aura both simple and nostalgic. Editor: That makes a lot of sense, placing it in a Folk-Art tradition, because I also feel it touches the idea of animation, breathing life into inanimate objects! Curator: Precisely! That duality is what makes it so intriguing, I think. A drawing of a mechanical object suggesting both nostalgia, animation and folk artistry. How’s that for a multi-layered metaphor? Editor: It’s so interesting how the materials and subject combine to create all these layers of meaning! I’ll never look at a toy the same way again. Curator: That's the magic, isn’t it? Seeing the extraordinary within the everyday. Thanks, I think it adds more feeling than originally perceived.