Gondola and Map 1985

Curator: Piroska Szanto's 1985 lithograph, "Gondola and Map," presents us with a fascinating abstraction of Venice. I wonder, what’s your immediate sense of it? Editor: Disorientation, delightfully so. It’s as if the city is dreaming itself, pulling apart familiar shapes and reassembling them with a mischievous wink. That gold background—is that the shimmering light reflecting off the water? Curator: Precisely! I see that metallic backdrop as evocative of the Venetian lagoon, simultaneously dazzling and slightly melancholic, like a gilded mirror reflecting a fading empire. Editor: And the gondola itself, rendered as this almost skeletal, fantastical creature. I notice the traditional 'ferro' prow, those iron ornaments. Are those abstracted campaniles rising like playful sentinels? The map in bubblegum pink and coral. A very post-modern Venice. Curator: Definitely. The abstracted map, that's an ingenious element—it reduces the city to an essence, a series of connections and pathways rather than a literal representation. Think of Venice's history as a gateway between East and West. Perhaps this piece represents the residue of many eras: it takes elements of classical landscapes and fuses it with something daring, even a little brash in its modernist perspective. Editor: Those candy-striped poles are very curious: Moorings or some echo of nautical markings, and I wonder if that palette intentionally veers towards artifice, underlining that we’re looking at an idea of a city, a remembered or imagined space, rather than a literal depiction. It almost looks like someone made it out of the detritus of an abandoned stage set for commedia dell'arte! Curator: I agree, the piece seems less about depicting Venice than conjuring its emotional atmosphere and even hinting at the role symbolism plays in creating myth. The more you look at it, the more dreamlike it seems. The real existing place starts to fall away as this graphic palimpsest imposes itself over reality. Editor: Indeed, Piroska Szanto gives us a vivid, playful invitation to a floating city of our own imaginations. Curator: What a captivating vision! One which keeps re-adjusting in my mind's eye the longer I look at it.