March 5th, 1968 1968

Editor: This is "March 5th, 1968," a black and white drawing by Jack Youngerman from, well, 1968. I’m struck by how simple, almost stark, it is. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The immediate pull is to the binary—black and white, positive and negative space, presence and absence. But Youngerman, even in abstraction, hints at something deeper, a submerged cultural memory. March 5th, 1968... what was happening then? Editor: I believe that was during the Vietnam War, and there were a lot of protests happening. Curator: Exactly. Now, consider this stark division on the page. Does it evoke for you a sense of conflict? Perhaps not just literal conflict, but an inner turmoil? Editor: I guess so. The white shape is almost trapped by the black surrounding it. It feels unbalanced. Curator: Unbalanced, yes! It's a disruption of harmony. What if the stark black and white here embodies the polarising opinions of the time? The monochrome palette limits interpretation, funneling our gaze and forcing us to confront the essence of… what, do you think? Editor: The essence of…disagreement? The kind that maybe felt impossible to resolve. I hadn't considered the date as being so integral to the work itself. Curator: Dates are deliberate. Titles are whispers from the artist's psyche. This work, to me, is a stark, graphic representation of a society grappling with internal conflict, reduced to its most basic, contrasting elements. Editor: I'll definitely be paying more attention to dates now, and what those dates might have meant at the time! Thanks! Curator: Indeed. Every mark carries history, whether visible or felt.