Pa. German Bird 1935 - 1942

Curator: This watercolour drawing, titled "Pa. German Bird", was created by Frances Lichten between 1935 and 1942. Editor: It’s charming. The earthy palette, slightly rough edges...it evokes something handmade, functional. It also seems small. Curator: The watercolour and drawing medium used certainly lends to the intimacy. The bird is a potent symbol across many cultures, often signifying freedom, the soul, a messenger between worlds. Editor: Intimacy comes to mind because it replicates something—some craft object made from painted wood perhaps? I am interested in Lichten's artistic choices: was watercolor and drawing selected to mimic or simulate other materials and practices common to folk art production? Curator: Very possibly! This drawing certainly reminds one of decorative carvings found in Pennsylvania German folk art. Consider how birds, particularly distelfinks, were ubiquitous motifs believed to bring good luck and ward off evil. They are embedded in cultural memory! Editor: Embedded, but produced under particular circumstances. I wonder, in those specific decades of the 1930s-1940s, how this form and technique was related to larger processes of preservation and commodification of "folk" traditions? Did the watercolour aesthetic play into consumers' romantic views of art production by regular, "untrained" laborers? Curator: These are excellent points to consider when viewing the image and how it functions within the history of art, folk traditions and craftsmanship! Editor: Yes, these paintings allow us to connect with history from new angles of materiality. Curator: Precisely, allowing these art objects to continually convey symbolic meaning as cultural carriers of visual form and knowledge.