Untitled 1975

Curator: This piece really captures a sense of quiet vulnerability, doesn't it? It's almost like a whisper on paper. Editor: Indeed, and the subtlety draws you in. This "Untitled" work by Christopher Wilmarth, dating back to 1975, showcases his skill with watercolor and paper. The very choice of medium feels appropriate to its delicate nature. Curator: It feels so ephemeral, almost disappearing. You've got these soft washes and lines that are barely there, hovering on the edge of visibility. Editor: Wilmarth worked in a fascinating period, the tail end of the dominance of abstraction. It reflects the continued push and pull of formalism and conceptualism that influenced his artistic decisions, which sometimes frustrated his popular appeal in a commercial market dominated by Minimalism. Curator: Right. These shapes remind me of standing stones in some forgotten landscape, shrouded in mist. The lines, those verticals, almost skeletal against the paper...it speaks of memory and absence to me. Editor: I read them as standing pillars, representing institutions and hierarchies but rendered delicate and somewhat undermined by their ethereal quality, they evoke impermanence of social constructs. Curator: I find that thought compelling, because it goes beyond aesthetics to really comment on systems. But there's also something very personal here, a quiet observation. Like sketching memories you don't want to quite grasp or name. Editor: Wilmarth's art always played with boundaries of the accessible and opaque and often explored those political and social issues on this intimate scale, where it might go unseen except by the most perceptive eye. He reminds me of someone who wants you to lean in close. Curator: So beautifully said, its secrets for only those who are brave enough to notice and feel what is underneath, or to read between its lines. Editor: Ultimately it stands as a commentary of time, memory and socio political landscapes from a time where change and shifts, demanded that these things all become, redefined and understood by artists willing to interpret and show the reality.