Figures in Space #1 1949

Editor: We’re looking at Louis Schanker’s "Figures in Space #1" from 1949, created with pen and ink. There's something unsettling, almost dreamlike, about how these figures are constructed. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Unsettling, yes, absolutely! Like glimpsing a gathering of phantoms at a very chic cocktail party. Schanker's lines, like whispered secrets, build these spectral figures. There’s a dance happening between figuration and pure abstraction, isn't there? He’s pulling apart the human form, reorganizing it into something…other. And the flatness! Does it remind you a bit of early explorations into Cubism, where perspective is flattened and fractured? Editor: It does a little, though Cubism feels more architectural somehow, while this feels…more organic, even though it's all lines. Curator: Exactly! And those lines, so fluid, so sure. Each one a single breath, capturing an ephemeral moment. Almost as if he's trying to capture the essence of ‘figure’ rather than the figure itself. It makes me wonder what these figures are doing in their space... are they trapped, or simply floating freely? It’s deliciously ambiguous. Editor: It's making me rethink what a portrait can even be. Curator: It's almost like Schanker took the formal, stiff portraits of the past and shook them until their skeletons fell out! Wonderful, isn’t it, how a simple pen and ink drawing can make us question everything we thought we knew? Editor: Definitely gives me a new appreciation for line work, that's for sure!