Tumbler (Ruby) c. 1936

Curator: This watercolor work by Edward White, created around 1936, is titled "Tumbler (Ruby)". What strikes you first? Editor: It's a powerful image. That single red form against the pale ground... It feels almost totemic, like a sacred vessel. It also creates this illusion that there might be some sort of liquid inside the tumbler. Curator: Interesting. It's fascinating how the mundane can become imbued with meaning through artistic representation, especially during this era where social and political landscapes were rapidly transforming. Do you feel that might be somehow important when examining White's illustration? Editor: Absolutely. Ruby is tied to luxury, royalty, desire. Placing that powerful symbol within the simple, functional shape of a tumbler generates an incredible amount of cultural tension. Curator: Considering the tumbler's shape, you feel a contradiction emerging. And perhaps a tension, maybe even reflecting a questioning of established social hierarchies or a yearning for accessible luxury in a time of hardship, depending on the context where this glass and colour ruby may belong to. Editor: Exactly! Its modern simplicity clashes beautifully with the weight ruby brings along to it. The use of watercolor lends the subject a certain transparency but at the same time, almost violently, stains its surface with the same tone used in royal garments. There's this odd push and pull, this dance between aspiration and reality that really gets me. Curator: It’s a beautiful synthesis. It's remarkable how a single object rendered in such a straightforward manner can spark such layered conversations about value, perception, and cultural memory. I find myself contemplating this artwork, realizing I keep thinking about the colour selection. What should ruby tell me about early 20th century social-political events? What do you think? Editor: Precisely! To me, it becomes a symbolic probe, inviting a deeper engagement with the values embedded in objects and their social implications, prompting us to decode meaning and memory through such a seemingly simple form.