Allegro c. 1928

Curator: Here we have Karl Wiener's "Allegro," a drawing likely completed around 1928 using coloured pencil and pastel. It is such an intriguing abstract expression. Editor: It bursts with energy, doesn't it? Like a vibrant explosion. The colours are so unrestrained. It makes me think of jazz music somehow, syncopated rhythms translated into visual form. Curator: Well, the title "Allegro" suggests exactly that – a brisk and lively tempo. This was made during a time when artists across Europe were exploring abstraction as a means to express the inner, emotional landscape. We could place this under Fauvism too. The museum setting always affects my reading of the imagery of the painting. Editor: So it’s supposed to make me think about all those socio-political conditions... Hmm, well I don't know, it feels way more personal to me than institutional! Curator: Perhaps, but art always operates within a framework, Karl Wiener certainly had its own in 1928. Editor: Maybe, or maybe he was just feeling especially groovy that day and went on with the inspiration. Seriously, the colour choices feel really deliberate, especially with those reds playing against the cooler blues and greens. What do you suppose this kind of piece meant for Karl Wiener to show to others? It might suggest it all in here... like a conversation only accessible through emotions rather than through speech, like any poem of Baudelaire or Rimbaud. Curator: A vital question! The display context hugely impacts how his abstraction can mean and work now as art. Exhibiting these once intensely personal works now re-programs it into an instrument that represents many of Wiener's convictions on color or emotion in public spaces. Editor: Well, however it has got in here, its pure, playful expressiveness shines on through... And makes a great conversation piece, clearly! Curator: Indeed, a lot to ponder from these colourful strokes! Editor: Agreed! I'm seeing symphonies now... bye. Curator: And perhaps hearing paintings! Bye.