Untitled 1997

Curator: This striking, untitled work is by Phyllida Barlow, currently residing in the Tate Collections. Editor: The sheer physicality! It feels like a blueprint for a precarious, almost comical, construction site. Curator: Yes, and consider her process—the layering, the brushstrokes that reveal the raw material of paint, the paper support itself. It's like a deconstruction of the very idea of monumentality. Editor: I see that, but also the repetitive forms remind me of modular building blocks, or perhaps a failed architectural model, emphasizing the labor and the built environment that shapes our lives. Curator: It leaves me pondering the vulnerability of structures, both physical and emotional. Doesn't it evoke a sense of impermanence, despite the bold shapes? Editor: Indeed, and perhaps that tension is exactly what makes it so compelling. The materiality grounds the emotional impact. Curator: Absolutely. A beautiful tension between form and feeling.