Center Split 1962

Editor: So this is "Center Split" by Howard Mehring, painted in 1962, using acrylic. What strikes me immediately is the geometric boldness – it feels both retro and incredibly contemporary. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Mehring’s work speaks volumes about the cultural anxieties and aspirations of the 1960s. This was a period defined by the struggle for civil rights, rising Cold War tensions, and burgeoning counter-cultural movements. Does the hard-edged geometry and carefully balanced color composition evoke anything in particular for you in relation to these social upheavals? Editor: I hadn’t thought of it that way, but now that you mention it, the almost militant precision of the lines, set against the potential for chaos… it feels very charged. What do you mean? Curator: Well, consider Color Field painting's context. Artists were moving away from the explicit emotionalism of Abstract Expressionism toward a more reductive, cerebral approach. Some interpreted it as an exploration of pure aesthetics, separate from the social realm. Yet, can art truly be divorced from its socio-political environment? Does the striving for perfection and order within the canvas maybe reflect a longing for the same in a world increasingly fractured? Editor: So, the artist's choice to eliminate the personal brushstroke, could that be read as a commentary? Almost like removing the self to strive for a collective ideal, which also sounds very sixties, in a utopian sort of way? Curator: Exactly! It's about examining the power structures inherent within supposedly neutral forms. It is the tension between these utopian ideals and the ever-present societal challenges that makes the work resonate even today. What I think Mehring is trying to show us is an answer that resides in his intentional lack of brush strokes, so not so emotional as other works of this period. Editor: That really opens up a new way of seeing it. I came in thinking about color and composition, but I am leaving with social, and philosophical insight. Curator: Precisely! That's the power of art to hold these important conversations on wider subjects.