Crock

Art Historical Context

**Crock** by Anne Nemtzoff (. 1939) captures the humble beauty of an everyday American pottery—a sturdy crock, measuring about 7⅜ inches high with a 6-inch top diameter tapering to 5 inches at the base. Rendered in watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite on paperboard (30.4 × 28.9 cm), this study highlights the object's simple, functional form, likely a product of early American folk pottery traditions used for storage or preservation. Created as part of the Index of American Design (IAD), a New Deal-era Federal Art Project (1935–1942), Nemtzoff's work documents the nation's vernacular design heritage during the Great Depression. Sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, the IAD employed artists like her to meticulously record utilitarian objects, preserving cultural artifacts amid economic hardship and fostering national pride in American craftsmanship. Nemtzoff's mixed-media technique blends fluid watercolor washes for subtle glazes with the fine detail of colored pencil and graphite, evoking the crock's tactile earthenware surface. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's collection, this piece exemplifies how the IAD elevated everyday items to art, bridging folk tradition and modern documentation for future generations.