Free Hand Decorated Wall c. 1940

Curator: Let’s take a look at "Free Hand Decorated Wall," a watercolor drawing made around 1940 by Michael Lauretano. What strikes you first about it? Editor: Well, it’s undeniably peculiar. The figure seems poised, maybe a bit awkward, like they’re caught mid-performance in an amateur theatrical production. And the archer…Cupid after too many cocktails, perhaps? Curator: Note how Lauretano deploys watercolor to produce an effect that imitates fresco technique. The earth-toned pigments create an interesting spatial construction between figure and architectural surround. Editor: I do get the illusion of texture and aged walls. It really speaks to the classical—in a deconstructed way. It’s rough, the lines aren't precise; the whole image feels like a memory. Curator: Consider how the subject—a lone, Classical figure beneath a decaying archway, drawn with rudimentary technique—points to a kind of structural fragmentation. Editor: Yes, fragmented! Like a shattered ideal. This figure’s got a hopeful little bow, but you can see how their situation lacks wholeness. I find myself feeling wistful and amused, as if I have discovered something ancient rendered as contemporary yearning. Curator: And in that yearning we might recognize a timeless pursuit—humanity seeking balance, caught in the web of formal constraint. Editor: Exactly! Lauretano lets you see that universal aspiration, that human craving for an impossible harmony through a style of expression both artless and deeply considered. Curator: Yes, it's as though Lauretano captured something so simple yet enduring in its aesthetic design. Editor: Absolutely. It leaves me pondering how the simplest forms, rendered with the barest skill, can ignite profound feelings about this longing for what is always just beyond reach.