Contre les Apaches. l'ecole anglaise 

Curator: Here we have "Contre les Apaches. l'ecole anglaise," a drawing by Jean-Louis Forain, though undated. There's a starkness to its realism. What strikes you most immediately about it? Editor: Isolation. The man leaning against the corner looks utterly defeated. The grey tones emphasize his hopelessness. But I can’t look past the gesture of the man in the foreground – so threatening, dominating the other’s personal space with his stick, yet the line it traces on the ground remains...inert. Curator: Yes, that stick becomes such a key element. Forain emphasizes line and form so beautifully here with simple graphite, really. But beyond aesthetics, think about the context. "Apaches" referred to Parisian gangs in the early 20th century. So the title sets a very specific tone. This piece could speak to broad power dynamics or even the supposed failures of "English" school discipline? It is almost too subtle! Editor: Fascinating! Knowing that, it reframes everything. I see the cane, less as a personal weapon and more as a tool or symbol of that discipline – mass produced to carry out what would appear as senseless control? Consider the mass production of the graphite stick, now being put to personal effect, one man holding all the power…it does give pause to contemplate our own participation in systems. Curator: Absolutely, you are bringing me there. It transforms the space, almost into a stage or classroom. What seemed just desolation and menace gains another layer of critique—maybe even suggesting how systems perpetuate their own brutal logic. Do we then begin to pity the aggressor? Editor: Maybe, a little bit. We might also see how systems allow him the possibility of that behavior, even endorse it? What seemed purely emotional and relational transforms, through the work of manufacture, into a very real expression of an apparatus designed for compliance and cruelty. I like that interplay of observation that Forain allows us! Curator: Right, the drawing initially offers an easily accessible reading—two people in dire circumstance—then unfolds. The apparent simplicity masks a disquieting depth, the human story tangled up with broader questions of authority and societal norms. Editor: Well put. I was first drawn to the palpable sadness, now my thinking leans towards an interrogation of our complicity in upholding institutions, for their symbolic effect. I am always pleased to see artworks used to make this case more visible.