Abstraction c. 1960

Artist: Woah, this piece just throws you right into the middle of chaos, doesn't it? It's all splash and dash – red, gray, little jabs of yellow, a few errant black lines all fighting for attention. It's got a wild energy that feels...untamed, raw. Curator: Indeed. We are observing “Abstraction” by John von Wicht, crafted around 1960, and rendered in watercolours. Its impact arises primarily from its assertive formalism. Notice the dominance of red planar forms. They establish a visual rhythm contradicted by the sharp, angular lines intersecting them. Artist: Rhythm's an interesting word for it. It's less a heartbeat and more like a sudden burst, y'know? Like something exploding outward. Makes me think about emotions – ones that don't sit still, that crackle with restless fire. And those lines—almost like frantic scribbles. Curator: Precisely. Von Wicht is disrupting expectations, subverting structural integrity with those frenetic lines, fracturing the unity that the red planes try to establish. It is a clear example of how abstraction can challenge perceptions. The restrained palette is also notable; it’s carefully considered and far from arbitrary. Artist: Arbitrary, no. I see each colour chosen carefully. Those greys dampen the red; they whisper of a cloud covering a burning ember or perhaps something smouldering underneath. There is contrast, something both suppressed and desperate to escape. The soul wants out, in other words. Curator: I see how the semiotic framework might support such an interpretation. Colour does possess inherent symbolic qualities. The materiality of the watercolor medium also enhances its impact. The bleeding, translucent qualities contribute to a sense of dynamism, or perhaps decay. This dissolution furthers the work's expressive content. Artist: Dissolution sounds a bit grim. I read it as less about decay and more about metamorphosis. Think about nature for a minute —it is about life-death-life constantly reshaping everything around it, sometimes subtly and at other times violently. So the overall effect becomes not just exciting, but, in the deepest sense, hopeful too. Curator: Interesting, yes, a cycle of creation-destruction-recreation, visible through the tensions within the picture's formal devices, between its lines, colours, and application techniques. Thank you, this watercolor has afforded ample evidence to reaffirm the power inherent within abstract language. Artist: True, there are lots of languages, and many ways of understanding the soul. It has been such a trip experiencing and understanding the art today.