Untitled - Laca a La Piroxilina 1950

Curator: Before us hangs an untitled composition from 1950 by Uruguayan artist José Pedro Costigliolo, rendered in acrylic paint using a technique known as "laca a la piroxilina." What strikes you immediately about it? Editor: It’s starkly geometric—all sharp angles and linear forms against a dark background. It feels dynamic, but also unsettling somehow, like a visual representation of urban anxiety. Curator: Urban anxiety is an interesting read. Costigliolo, a key figure in Constructivism, was deeply invested in the symbolic power of geometry. The lines, each distinct in color—blue, white, red, yellow—aren't just aesthetic choices. They're loaded with cultural resonance. Editor: And what might those resonances be? I'm always wary of claiming universal symbols when context often shifts their meaning drastically. Curator: True, the interpretation shifts but considering the European roots of Constructivism and the South American avant-garde movements of the time, we see forms embracing progress and social change after periods of colonial suppression. Blue, often linked to the sky or spirituality, and red to revolution… Yellow I can read here as sun or life-giving warmth in stark juxtaposition to the flat dark field it hovers in. Together, set within an unsettling visual context, it may express some of the complex social changes following periods of revolution and unrest in Latin America. Editor: I can appreciate the artist working within and subtly playing on symbols, and the potential of a revolution against the heavy shadow here, yet the tension lies in the fact that pure abstraction is, by definition, non-representational. Curator: That's precisely where Costigliolo plays with our expectations. By harnessing the *feeling* of symbols and by using hard-edged geometric form, a sense of universal order perhaps, the image begins to work on a level beyond the purely decorative. Consider the angle of that dominant white line. What does that aggressive angle provoke? Editor: Restlessness? Perhaps an active striving to uproot a social condition. What are your feelings about that cluster of short dashes of golden yellow over to the side? They appear somewhat stranded. Curator: For me, that small pattern of yellow dashes has the energy of technological innovation, while the angle and cut of the larger compositional lines give an unsettling feeling, not of complete discord, but unresolved progress and ongoing potentiality. Editor: I see it as a system on the verge of collapse, a beautifully designed structure grappling with some unknown force threatening to shatter its rigid order. It highlights art's ability to reflect and refract the sociopolitical turmoil inherent in its era, creating powerful dialogues across history. Thank you. Curator: And thank you, for shining new light and layers onto the meanings embedded within such potent visual motifs.