Sheet with overall stripe and dot pattern 1800 - 1900

Editor: This is a print, a sheet featuring an overall stripe and dot pattern, made by an anonymous artist sometime between 1800 and 1900. It’s currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has such a folksy feel to it. What can you tell me about this piece? Curator: This anonymous print is really fascinating when considered from a materialist perspective. The means of its production become central to our understanding. Was this hand-printed? Perhaps a block print? The irregularity of the pattern suggests a process involving significant hand labor. The dots and stripes are quite regular but the execution has handmade qualities, revealing the traces of human effort in its construction. We also must ask about the paper itself. What type of paper, where was it manufactured, and how would it have impacted the accessibility and the use of this print? Editor: That's a really interesting perspective. I was so focused on the visuals of the pattern, I hadn’t even considered the labour or materials that would have gone into creating this. So you're saying the specific methods and resources shape how we value it? Curator: Absolutely. And not just value aesthetically, but also economically and socially. The raw materials would affect who could afford to use them. Think of the contrast between mass-produced machine-printed textiles versus hand-crafted designs like this one. This would carry connotations based on the values that the consumers assigned to them. Editor: I hadn't thought about this object in terms of labor before, this approach allows me to see value that I did not recognize before. Curator: By considering its production, materiality and social context, the historical artwork becomes a far more powerful signifier, a relic containing its own modes of existence.