Perspective chromatique 1972

Curator: Looking at "Perspective chromatique," an acrylic on canvas work crafted by Martha Boto in 1972. Its interplay of color and form immediately grabs you, doesn't it? Editor: Grabs, maybe throws you right into a vibrant vortex! It's like peering down a multi-colored well or a psychedelic drainpipe. Unexpectedly cheerful. Curator: The hard-edge painting is so precise, almost clinical, yet those pulsating colors soften the austerity. Note the geometric abstraction – how the concentric squares recede, creating a definite illusion of depth. A superb deployment of Op Art strategies. Editor: Depth, yes, but there’s also this unsettling flatness, like it's all happening on a screen. I can’t quite decide if I’m moving into it or it’s expanding outwards to consume me. Curator: Precisely! It is this dialectic, this push and pull between the material flatness of the canvas and the illusionistic depth achieved through meticulous chromatic scaling, that Boto interrogates. The carefully chosen color combinations further heighten this effect, activating retinal afterimages and perceptual ambiguity. Editor: Perceptual ambiguity, I like that. For me, this feels deeply personal, like a journey inward filtered through this rigid, almost tyrannical grid. Do you think she was maybe mapping her own mental space, codifying her inner world? Curator: While biographical interpretations certainly have their place, focusing solely on them can eclipse a deeper engagement with the work's formal qualities. Her primary engagement is with the dynamics of perception. It challenges us to question the nature of sight, to reconsider how we apprehend spatial relationships. Editor: Well, I still sense something vulnerable under that hard shell. Perhaps it's the faint asymmetry or the tiny imperfections in color—cracks in the perfect facade. What do you take away from this piece, after all this time? Curator: The rigorous methodology, the analytical exploration of form and color. Boto reduces painting to its fundamental elements, building layer upon layer of controlled, systematic optical disturbance. It provides a lasting model. Editor: And I see a brave dance between order and chaos. "Perspective chromatique" makes you question your senses—and maybe, just maybe, find some unexpected joy in the wobble.