Variations I 1948

Curator: Lennart Rodhe's "Variations I" from 1948 really stops you in your tracks. What do you make of it? Editor: It feels almost like an architectural blueprint gone delightfully wrong, a colour study of a city built by Escher. I love the tactile quality—you can practically feel the layering of paint. What sort of materials did Rodhe employ? Curator: Rodhe was very interested in mixed media, really blurring the lines between what's expected of paint on canvas. The texture owes something to the almost careless, practical application of layers and layers, as well as to the inclusion of materials and forms. It seems as though he uses anything that feels right at that very instant. Editor: Right. I’m especially interested in that tension between high art and something closer to design or craft. The geometric patterns, almost quilt-like in their arrangement, suggest a relationship to domestic work, even as the abstract expressionist style gestures towards a rejection of such associations. Was he interested in ideas of artistic labor, and where art comes from? Curator: Absolutely. You know, he wrestled intensely with the artist's role in a changing world. His work explores form, certainly, but it’s always pushing the boundaries of what’s 'acceptable', constantly asking the canvas—and the viewer—'what if?' The colour choices… a kind of disciplined riot, almost like life imitating order, and order responding in chaotic form. Editor: And that pushes back against a heroic narrative of art. Rather than conjuring from thin air, we see someone working within, and even highlighting, the materiality of his chosen medium. The repetitive shapes aren't just abstract ideas; they are produced through real, physical effort, one brushstroke at a time. Curator: Indeed. "Variations I" acts almost like a meditation, a set of permutations of Rodhe's personal reality expressed in geometric language. The picture becomes a visual experience with rhythm, pause and inflection. But it's very interesting what you said about work… Maybe there are no accidents? It's a matter of process; of doing it rather than theorising what might occur if... Editor: Right, he builds up complexity with each layer, almost accruing meaning, like a building being constructed by diverse teams across time. Thank you, I had never considered it that way. Curator: A real collaboration then; between him and us, and the ghosts of art’s past, maybe! Editor: It brings to the fore a sense of the artist at work, grappling with materials and forms and ideas of composition as something inherently intertwined and co-creative. Curator: An experience to appreciate up close!