GTW-FD#6 1987

Editor: Right, so this is GTW-FD#6 by Friedel Dzubas, painted in 1987. It looks like he used oil and maybe even watercolor paints. It's... very abstract, almost like looking at a weather system or a strange, otherworldly map. What do you see in it? Curator: It hits me right in the gut, you know? I feel this tension between control and chaos, that's very real in Abstract Expressionism. Dzubas… he's not just throwing paint, although it might look like it. See how the colors bleed and mingle, but there's still this sense of separate forms pushing against each other? It reminds me of trying to hold onto a memory as it slips away. Do you see any echoes of other Abstract Expressionists in there? Editor: I can see some Kline, maybe, in the boldness of the black shapes. But Dzubas feels a little… softer? Less aggressive. Curator: Exactly! And that’s what’s interesting about him. He embraces the “allover” effect of someone like Pollock, where the whole surface is activated, but with this almost watercolour-y transparency that softens the impact. To me, it feels more contemplative, a meditation on color and form rather than a declaration. Editor: I never would have thought to connect it to memory… now I’m seeing these colors as feelings. Like the murky brown on top… maybe that's a forgotten moment? Curator: Or a bittersweet one! Color is deeply personal, so trust your intuition. Each viewer brings their own emotional history to a piece like this, and that's part of the magic, isn’t it? Editor: Yeah, it's like the painting completes itself in your head. Thanks, I get it a lot better now. Curator: My pleasure. Looking at art should be a conversation, after all.