Couple au bord de l'eau, le soir 

Curator: Gazing at Jean Rene Bazaine’s work, "Couple au bord de l'eau, le soir", one is struck by the intensity of the color. Editor: It's overwhelmingly red! A passionate, almost violent palette. But also, oddly constrained, like looking at a city through a crimson filter. I’m immediately intrigued by the emotional implications of that choice. Curator: Bazaine, an abstract expressionist, frequently employed color to express deeply felt emotional and spiritual states. What might be interesting to consider, in this particular composition, is the way geometric forms evoke feeling and prompt analysis. I mean what does pure abstraction, without traditional figurative elements, mean within the legacy of modern painting? Editor: And yet, with that title, "Couple by the Water, in the Evening"... one starts looking for the traces of a human story, maybe seeing intimacy framed through the abstract cityscape. I start looking into the historical, religious and mythical uses of the colour red, is it to enhance emotion, desire, love, courage? Curator: Yes, exactly, it highlights a tension in Bazaine's oeuvre, this interplay between abstract expression and something just beyond immediate comprehension. Red's always such a charged color isn't it? Think of the religious connotations - sacrifice, martyrdom, or revolution! Editor: Speaking of sacrifice, in Bazaine's time the art world was going through radical shifts. To remain figurative wasn't an option anymore. Artists had to break ground, defy institutional expectations. So what social narratives are encoded in an image like this one? How does abstract expressionism in general relate to social contexts or political struggles of its era? Curator: I wonder what this couple represents - their socio-economic circumstances? In which gallery would they have been shown? What were Bazaine's collectors buying into when they supported such abstraction. These are not merely aesthetic questions; they get at the cultural function of modernism in mid-20th century society. Editor: Indeed, that is right. This prompts a fresh viewing, perhaps less focused on the 'beauty' or formal qualities. I'm also left thinking of Bazaine's relationship with abstraction itself, does he seem to resist it on some level by continually referencing the human? Curator: Ultimately this work leaves us contemplating what it means to find humanity within pure geometric forms and that striking shade of crimson. Editor: It's like we are peeling away layers of paint – of meaning – discovering narratives lurking beneath the surface.