Untitled 1996

Curator: At first glance, there is a sternness to this image – the high contrast, sharp lines, and almost symmetrical design seem to portray something rigid and formal. Editor: This is an "Untitled" drawing created in 1996 by Wendy Lehman. Created using pencil, it blends elements of caricature and abstraction in its composition. But the way it engages with those tropes departs from the trends of its era in ways worth exploring. Curator: Yes, the abstraction feels pointed rather than playful. This feels almost like a deliberate un-fleshing, taking something that might be perceived as powerful – say, a political figure or executive – and draining away all humanizing qualities to expose their geometric essence. Editor: Absolutely. I think what's compelling is the visual language it adopts. The stark geometric shapes and severe verticality create a peculiar psychological landscape. The cartoonish quality reminds me of a time when public figures were mocked and scrutinized on newspaper stands. I mean, you have these strong colors but no face, really, which says a lot. The horizontal bars cutting across suggest confinement, a stripping away of autonomy. The caricature serves as critique. Curator: Precisely! The symbolism carries such weight here. The recurring lines evoke a sense of order – almost forced conformity, don't you think? And despite the title remaining deliberately anonymous, the figure portrayed is unmistakably…a figure. An authority figure almost certainly stripped down to some base elements. Perhaps its very lack of a knowable identity becomes the artwork's most potent commentary? Editor: And don't overlook the social aspect; there were significant shifts in media around 1996 as people engaged in digital forums to address institutional ills and voice criticism – Lehman appears to tap into these rising undercurrents to offer us a means for contemplating figures of influence, how they operate, and how readily they may also be disassembled to lay bare their constituent forms. Curator: Looking closer at this unnamed artwork certainly exposes greater depths of perception. Editor: Indeed, reminding us that art often asks us not just to see but to decode.