Untitled 1980

Curator: Welcome. Let's consider this acrylic painting on canvas. Made in 1980, this "Untitled" work is by Robert Goodnough. Editor: Well, my first thought? A murmuration of starlings caught mid-swoop. All those tiny triangles…it’s dizzying and yet kind of mesmerizing, you know? Curator: Absolutely, and Goodnough’s work sits interestingly within the post-impressionist and hard-edge painting movements. You can almost feel the legacy of Pointillism translated through a distinctly modern lens, decades after movements like neo-impressionism or divisionism have initially challenged ideas about perception. Editor: I see what you mean by hard-edge—each little triangle is so crisp, such precision. And the whole thing, the complete "Gestalt", hangs heavy within the composition, but then almost dissolves when you get close… It makes you reconsider its center of gravity or try to find a focal point where there isn’t one. Curator: And think about what Goodnough was responding to and participating in— questions about abstraction, about pattern, and the role of geometric form that pervaded a huge variety of artwork production at the time, often related to questioning "high" art via "low" crafts. He almost toys with decorative, non-art connotations. Editor: It really tickles something deep down, almost subconscious. Like looking through a kaleidoscope as a kid, except way more serious. Less joyous, perhaps. Curator: It invites the question about the role and impact of art that intentionally eschews subject matter, of what visual communication becomes when its purpose, if there ever was one, has all but dissipated. Editor: Hmmm. For me, it speaks more to something cellular, even at a quantum scale. I see chaos trying to arrange itself, seeking harmony in its dispersal. Maybe it’s simply the nature of stuff... constantly dancing in our peripheral vision. I’m definitely fond of this work. Curator: It definitely prompts different entry points. I’m intrigued how personal the interaction with abstract paintings like this remains over time. Editor: I'd happily revisit it. Always fresh eyes, fresh feels, a perpetual question hanging in the paint.