Double 'O' 1953

Curator: Emerson Woelffer created this abstract monoprint, called "Double 'O'", back in 1953. Look at the sharp lines! Editor: Immediately, I sense a playful energy. It's chaotic, yet there's a structure struggling to emerge. The composition almost feels like it's teetering on the edge of collapse. Curator: The “double O” indeed dominates, doesn’t it? Considering woelffer’s interest in surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, are we looking at an allusion to the self? Two eyes staring outward, perhaps? The overlaid lines suggesting an inner turmoil? Editor: Possibly. But knowing Abstract Expressionism, it could also just be about the sheer physicality of the materials. How the ink moves and bleeds. Look at the lower register where lines transform into near illegible scribbles that make one work to find a legible reading of the whole artwork. Curator: Legibility is part of the trick. The symbols seem ancient, echoing forgotten alphabets and primitive human expression. Is Woelffer channeling some archetypal force here? Editor: Or maybe reflecting on the breakdown of language and communication in a post-war world. Remember, this was created in 1953. The optimism of the early century has been shattered, the certainty of meaning has begun to collapse. Perhaps the deconstructed language mirrors that collapse of certainty. Curator: That could resonate. It feels stark, perhaps almost a rejection of established order. Yet, in these deconstructed shapes, could there be an emerging new symbolic language trying to take hold? The pair of eyes standing guard or leading forward into a space of newly discovered forms and structures of representation? Editor: It's an excellent question, and speaks to the tension present within Abstract Expressionism, this search for new forms with the awareness that the past has shattered the traditional basis of art. So the challenge remains of finding relevant ways of addressing viewers. Curator: "Double 'O'" serves as a powerful document of mid-century existential anxieties. Editor: ...and it invites us to consider our place within them.