Dimensions: support: 1221 x 977 mm frame: 1345 x 1107 x 67 mm
Copyright: © John Latham Estate, courtesy Lisson Gallery, London | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Right, next up we have 'Man Caught Up with a Yellow Object' by John Latham. It's… intense! All those blurred edges and that figure feels really trapped. What jumps out at you about this? Curator: Trapped is a great word. For me, it feels like a visual echo of the anxieties of the atomic age. That yellow object could be the sun, or something far more sinister. See how the black paint almost suffocates the figure? It’s like a memory struggling to surface, distorted by fear. What do you think? Editor: Wow, I didn't think of that, but the atomic age makes sense with that yellow orb. I see the struggle now in the brushstrokes. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure! It's always rewarding to see a piece in a new light.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/latham-man-caught-up-with-a-yellow-object-t06490
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John Latham created the work by spraying black paint onto a grey background. He used an electrically operated pump which frequently broke down, spitting out large blobs of paint which he accepted as creating a ‘sense of the unexpected’. A fragmented figure seems to emerge from a haze. It could suggest deep anxieties, which were widespread in the 1950s, about alienation and the pointlessness of individual action. However, Latham saw the yellow object as a symbol of enlightenment, and the tiny dots of spray paint as the units of time that together constitute reality. Gallery label, January 2025
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