The Pink-Faced Politician c. 1922

Curator: Oh, this one is delightfully unsettling. So many watchful eyes, reduced to a stark minimum. Editor: "The Pink-Faced Politician," created around 1922 by Edward Steichen. Look at the layers, Curator. Gouache and watercolor give this abstract composition such incredible depth. But unsettling is right! The title primes us to view it as a commentary. Curator: Exactly! The geometry does everything here. The triangles, the color choices. A cold and yet impassioned gaze of authority perhaps? Are these the symbols of some long forgotten propaganda or belief? Editor: The uniformity of the pale triangles looming in the background amplifies that. They could represent a crowd, easily swayed, or perhaps the many faces a politician adopts to manipulate. Their pallor feels oppressive. Curator: The central figures! A pink peak looking like a tower! Like a figure of importance who thinks of themselves more important than anyone else, as if everyone around him must exist just for their sake. The symbolism has an unmistakable bite. Editor: Steichen offers us such fragmented figures to embody the powerful, whose very faces are crafted to shape public emotion. Modernism saw such experimentation; cubism, in particular, broke down form to expose truth. We're challenged to confront the strategies of control enacted by figures in power and to question the reality of representation. It feels pertinent even today. Curator: So interesting! It almost functions as a mirror reflecting back societal archetypes. Are there certain ways we subconsciously recognize figures of power, and perhaps even, perpetuate these forms? Editor: I think you’re right! Maybe Steichen aimed to expose the machinery behind those archetypes to empower critical viewing. I find it interesting, the way a gouache-and-watercolor-based painting can achieve it this impact. Curator: Such works reminds one of how little some core power dynamics have actually changed since its making, it leaves a resonating melancholy in this world. Editor: Indeed! It also provokes how necessary visual deconstruction like this remains for us to better recognize our world.