Stencilled Floor c. 1940

Michael Lauretano made this stencil design, entitled "Stencilled Floor," at some point in the late 19th or early 20th century. It depicts an elaborate pattern, a dense interplay of botanical motifs and geometric shapes, which could theoretically adorn a floor. What can we infer about the role of decoration in American culture at the time? This may have been a period in which designers were attempting to reconcile the mass production of cheap domestic goods with the centuries-long tradition of artisanal crafts. The artist is using techniques associated with industry to generate designs, but those designs evoke a world of hand-made items. What's more, the designs themselves evoke nature and the natural world. Historians of design can draw upon an array of resources here, from trade publications to manufacturers' catalogs, to try and determine how this drawing functioned within American visual culture of the time. This careful contextualization can show us how visual meaning is shaped by institutional forces.