Untitled 1963

Curator: What strikes me immediately is the playful dissonance. The colour palette alone is a bit of a jolt, isn't it? Editor: It's confronting, certainly. It almost feels like the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard, yet I can't look away. Tell me, what are we looking at exactly? Curator: We are gazing upon an untitled piece created by Eileen Agar around 1963. Oil on canvas, figuration with a strong geometrical leaning, I'd suggest. What do you make of its relation to Agar’s other work, and, perhaps more broadly, its art historical context? Editor: Well, you know, Agar danced with the surrealists for a time, didn't she? It feels like that surrealist urge to shatter expectations is here, though perhaps filtered through a slightly later lens, picking up on some Abstract Expressionist energy. You have that jarring color, the flattened space, and the ambiguous figure that refuses to be easily decoded. I almost get the sense of something totemic about it. Like a shattered idol. Curator: A shattered idol! I love that. It captures the sense of fragmentation. But is that fragmentation destructive, or creatively generative? It feels like a rebirthing; chaos breeding unexpected forms from recognizable ones. Look at the suggested profile, dissolving into shapes. Editor: I agree; it certainly prompts reflections about representation itself, especially when thinking about who had the privilege of being represented, and how. By refusing easy answers, doesn't it also ask us to think about identity and its inherent complexities? And in a time when figures like Francis Bacon were contorting the human form, this feels almost…hopeful. Curator: Hopeful. I like that reading, resisting the urge to flatten or essentialize identity into any stagnant notion. Yes, there’s definitely something empowering in the work’s rejection of singular meaning, and allowing many readings. Editor: It certainly feels that Eileen Agar was encouraging viewers to arrive at new places when facing figuration. Curator: Indeed. Maybe that’s precisely where its potency lies; an active encounter for all.