The Annunciation 

Editor: We’re looking at “The Annunciation,” a print by Ivan Meštrović. There’s a real rawness to the linework, an almost unfinished quality. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: It’s less about ‘unfinished,’ more about distilling the narrative down to its core emotionality, wouldn't you say? This piece speaks to the monumental and personal weight of that single moment. I sense that Meštrović has scraped away the layers to get the very feeling, that trembling moment, and then allowed the drawing's tone to embrace it and present it to us. The strokes almost look like wind or breath, swirling around them. I wonder, do you see it, that shared huddle as their shared breath in faith and awe? Editor: Yes, I can see that in the shared tone and huddle. So it is the feeling of the Annunciation he is drawing and less the depiction of it? It feels very modern for such a biblical theme! Curator: Exactly. I wonder if Meštrović isn’t inviting us to think about how faith resides within all of us, that shared moment in us. It seems, in that intimate moment, the humanity overwhelms the dogma, the flesh overwhelms the faith. Editor: So it's not about doctrine; it's about something human, and accessible. Curator: Precisely. And the rawness helps with that accessibility. It whispers rather than proclaims. It asks more than answers. Editor: That's beautiful – the piece asks more than it answers. I hadn't considered it in that way, but it completely shifts my understanding. Curator: Sometimes, the most profound art lingers in the questions, in the breath between what's said and unsaid, eh?