[no title] 1968

Curator: Immediately striking, isn’t it? Like a memory, vivid yet incomplete. Editor: Absolutely. This untitled work by Harold Cohen from 1968 uses screenprint to depict what appears to be a face in startling yellow against a purple ground. There’s a sense of fragmented identity. Curator: Yes, the high contrast palette lends itself to that feeling, doesn't it? Yellow has often been used to signify decay, illness, or a corrupt state of mind, contrasting with the evocative symbol of royalty that purple has traditionally been. The lips are particularly arresting – soft, sensual, but slightly disturbing in their isolation. Editor: It's interesting to see how Cohen uses such visceral, almost primal imagery. It reminds me of early portraiture, where faces weren't just likenesses, but symbolic representations of power or the soul. Curator: I suppose, on reflection, there’s a very raw, almost aggressive honesty to this piece. It’s like a half-remembered scream, elegantly framed. Editor: Exactly. It prompts us to consider the duality within ourselves, doesn’t it? The tension between beauty and decay, the known and the unknown.