Relational Painting, Tondo #36 1955

Editor: So, this is Fritz Glarner's "Relational Painting, Tondo #36" from 1955, made with acrylic paint. The geometric shapes give it a sense of order, but the asymmetry and bold colors create a dynamic tension. What symbolic layers are at play here? Curator: I see a careful negotiation between order and chaos, not unlike the world around us in the mid-20th century, a period marked by rebuilding after the war and the looming sense of anxiety from the Cold War era. The Tondo format, circular and often associated with Renaissance ideals of harmony, is here disrupted by these rectangles. What does this disruption suggest to you? Editor: That even established forms can be reimagined or even questioned... But what do these rectangles actually represent? Is there any implied subject here? Curator: Perhaps not specific objects, but I feel these shapes function almost as hieroglyphs – building blocks for constructing a new visual language. The colors themselves hold weight. Red for passion and energy, balanced by the cool neutrality of grays, evoking a sense of calculated control, or perhaps, repressed emotion? Think about how color associations can change, deepen, or even contradict each other over time. Editor: That's fascinating – like the colors themselves are having a conversation. The more I look at it, the more the gray feels almost… oppressive. Curator: Precisely! And consider the "hard edge" style; these forms are crisply defined, refusing to blur or blend. Doesn't it remind you of city blocks or perhaps building schematics? How does that idea resonate? Editor: Now I'm imagining a city seen from above, its energy carefully structured, but with hints of disruption underneath. This wasn't as 'abstract' as I first thought... Curator: Indeed, these apparent non-figurative forms become a language unto themselves, encoding social anxieties and new modes of seeing the world. A great example of how abstraction carries immense symbolic weight.