Untitled c. 1973

Curator: This "Untitled" drawing by George Bunker, likely created around 1973, uses both watercolor and pencil to depict an abstract landscape. The drawing presents us with two distinct, rectangular compositions, one above the other. What is your initial reaction to these twin studies? Editor: My immediate feeling is… ambiguity. The soft pastel palette and the rudimentary marks, it feels like something remembered rather than directly observed. I am struck by the unformed shapes, yet there's a distinct suggestion of horizon lines, implying earth and sky. Curator: Yes, precisely! This tension between abstraction and representation is quite characteristic of the artistic explorations prevalent during that time, but I read in the marks a strong sense of memory. Looking at the top section with it's washes of greens, lilacs and the way the light blues are worked, could this have been something personally cherished, or deeply felt? It gives the feeling of something remembered, not exactly as it happened, but more how it felt to be there. Editor: I see your point about memory and the role it can play. Viewing it from a cultural studies perspective, these abstract landscapes could mirror the shift toward environmental consciousness emerging in the 70s. People were re-evaluating their relationship with nature. Even in its vagueness, this piece subtly acknowledges a collective yearning for a harmonious existence with the land. What do you think? Curator: Interesting interpretation. Given Bunker's attraction to geometric shapes, it might even suggest a wish to structure something intangible, a way of visually organising a more instinctive idea, a way of rendering concrete, say, something as ephemeral as recollection. The geometric blocks could even speak to that tension - something very human mapped onto an equally very human rendering of the landscape. Editor: Absolutely. Its apparent simplicity shouldn't be mistaken for a lack of complexity. This untitled drawing, as we’ve discovered, opens avenues for examining both the artist's psyche and the wider cultural mindset of the era. Curator: A delicate rendering which captures that very human push-pull between place and thought. It certainly embodies this particular artist's work well, and it sits at an intriguing period in cultural history.