DANCING TOGETHER 1980

Curator: Let’s discuss "Dancing Together," a 1980 watercolor by Chaim Goldberg. The composition features two abstracted figures entwined amidst a web of green and yellow hues. Editor: It feels... joyous, yet slightly constrained, like energy barely contained within those wiry lines and cell-like structures. There's a lightness, yet an underlying tension in their embrace. Curator: The artist masterfully employs line, almost like stained glass, to create definition and spatial relationships within the amorphous forms. Notice the contrasting values; they delineate the positive and negative spaces. Semiotically, we could view the juxtaposition of the two figures as representative of dialogue, harmony, perhaps even conflict, articulated solely through the language of form. Editor: Hmm, I see that tension, definitely. But it feels more like a lover’s quarrel—all passion and theatrics! It's the almost neon yellow bumping up against the cool blues that gets me, visually it is unsettling. Curator: Goldberg’s background was deeply rooted in Expressionism. This artistic inheritance informs his bold choices of color and stylized figuration, which move beyond mere representational form. It moves toward evoking an emotion, a feeling. Editor: So true, I keep trying to see them and they morph into shapes and then almost, just almost, people! Its the suggestion that moves me in this case more than concrete understanding of their embrace. Like it captures some memory, a party maybe and the dance floor blurs! It makes me laugh! Curator: It presents us with an experience mediated through line, color, and composition, and by applying formalism as a means of art criticism and interpretation, we have found the undercurrents and meanings woven through those intrinsic qualities of Goldberg’s art. Editor: And I'm tickled, thinking that somewhere a couple are remembering a messy good dance from long ago, a memory as electric as these neon shapes. I appreciate art that is happy to tickle us awake and to remember!