Second Time Around 1969

Curator: Here we have Richard Smith's print, "Second Time Around," part of the Tate collection. Editor: My first thought? A stack of oddly shaped emerald lozenges floating in some forgotten ether. There's something unsettling, yet serene. Curator: The composition indeed plays on spatial ambiguity. Note the progression of forms, each a variation on the geometric, rendered with gestural strokes, inviting a semiotic reading of implied movement. Editor: I get this sense of déjà vu, like seeing something familiar in a dream—shapes just beyond grasp. The materiality of the print—that textured green—adds a layer of emotional resonance. Curator: The scale too, almost intimate, yet vertically expansive, challenges our perception of objecthood within a two-dimensional plane. Editor: It's like Smith’s inviting us to reconsider the quiet poetry of everyday forms—repetition, alteration, and the subtle dance of order and chaos. Curator: Precisely. This work encourages a rigorous engagement with the formal aspects of art, while simultaneously opening itself to subjective interpretation. Editor: Yeah, it’s a puzzle box, but one filled with green light. I leave feeling both stimulated and oddly calmed.