Rainbow 1958

Editor: Carol Summers's "Rainbow," printed in 1958, immediately strikes me as deceptively simple. It’s a print with bold geometric forms but evokes a dreamlike landscape. How do you interpret this work and its relationship to its time? Curator: I see this piece as a product of its historical moment and as a commentary on abstraction’s accessibility. The late 50s saw rising tensions around identity and conformity, a sharp contrast to the playful abstraction presented here. How might this work engage with the period's political anxieties, even as it seems purely aesthetic? Editor: So, beyond the surface appeal, is there an argument for "Rainbow" subtly critiquing social conformity? The simple shapes versus complicated meaning? Curator: Precisely! We might also consider the implications of making art more accessible. In what ways could this print, with its almost childlike forms, represent a democratic impulse, pushing back against the perceived elitism of the art world at the time? Could it represent the common person's rainbow? Editor: I didn’t think about it like that. I suppose seeing a rainbow carries cultural weight as it relates to civil rights, too? Curator: Absolutely. And it serves as a potent symbol within contemporary discourses on identity, community, and diversity, as its many-colored variations have long acted as affirmations of difference and togetherness. How fascinating that a print from 1958 anticipates this reading. Editor: This has definitely opened my eyes to layers of meaning I hadn't considered before. Curator: Me too! I find the relationship between apparent abstraction and socio-political meaning in art always a complex yet productive avenue for interpretation.