Lovers 

Curator: I'm immediately struck by the palpable sense of yearning radiating from this piece. Editor: What a great entry point. You are gazing at “Lovers,” a tempera painting by Otto Mueller, an artist associated with the Expressionist movement. While the exact date is unknown, it certainly embodies a raw and evocative style. Curator: Expressionist, yes, but it also has a vulnerable, tender quality to it, wouldn’t you say? The colours are muted, but there's a real intensity of emotion that hits you square in the chest. Almost naive, you might even say. Editor: Definitely. And thinking about the historical context, the nude, somewhat awkward intimacy can be viewed as an act of rebellion against restrictive social norms of the early 20th century. Look at how the figures are embedded within nature; could that not be a symbolic nod to the era's growing naturalism? Curator: Ah, now you're thinking, embedding meaning where maybe it’s just an image, an atmosphere of a dream half-remembered. It has this really arresting flattened perspective. Makes me wonder what their story is. Editor: That flattened perspective certainly echoes a rejection of traditional artistic representation, pushing the boundaries of form in art, and questioning representation within burgeoning counterculture. How is this displayed, how is *intimacy* on display here? Curator: That embrace just melts something inside. You feel as if you are seeing not a display but a real exchange. There's a trust in each other's body and acceptance too in the rough-hewn handling of it, you get that in seeing these two nudes clinging to each other Editor: Indeed, perhaps the ‘trust’ on display reflects new perspectives on gender that were coming to the surface when you consider art from this time and its function to display the shift and destabilization in the representation of binaries. The nude allows this type of exploration because they take place outside. Curator: Hmm...that takes a very heavy perspective...and is too far for what it tries to do, doesn’t it? Still, this piece seems to vibrate in such a powerful, emotive space and is probably why it haunts me still, it reaches that feeling in life we yearn to know: love, lust, loneliness. Editor: I appreciate that personal, introspective reading. "Lovers," despite its ambiguity, gives space to ask big questions about connection.