Painting #5 2015

Curator: At first glance, I see such stark juxtaposition of these colorful shapes on a sterile background; it's quite striking. Editor: We’re standing before "Painting #5," created in 2015 by Kaloust Guedel. It is a mixed-media piece employing acrylic paint, offering a fresh perspective on modern abstraction. Curator: Abstraction, yes, but to me, it speaks to more than just geometric form. Those blocks of color, the almost transparent line descending... It feels like coded information, a system of symbols. The colors themselves carry weight—orange bursting with energy, juxtaposed with this sensitive, almost fragile, pink, all grounded by vivid greens. It’s as if there’s some forgotten alphabet here. Editor: That is insightful. Guedel's art exists in this fascinating moment in the 21st century, a context very different from early Modernism. Mass-produced art materials like acrylic offer possibilities unseen in the avant-garde. There are no thick impasto strokes, instead a factory-produced clarity to the color planes. The artist makes it almost appear as a commercial, minimalist display; a museum white wall and these very controlled forms that evoke associations that range between pure emotion, geometry and perhaps... the industrial grid. Curator: Yes, it straddles those worlds so distinctly. The eye yearns to resolve it, to decipher its symbolism. This blank, white canvas… Perhaps that speaks to the deconstruction of meaning in a society awash in imagery? Maybe Guedel prompts the viewer to bring our own meaning to the vacuum. It reminds us of the enduring need for narratives, of our ability to invest symbols with value and make even hard geometry and blank whiteness a powerful gesture. Editor: Guedel's piece makes me think about the institutional critique so rife in art discourse. Who and how determines which works are shown in blank, white spaces? "Painting #5" with its precise colors becomes part of the discussion; a conversation on art history, but also the economic realities of an art market, with its canon and rules. Curator: Yes, precisely. That element of challenge makes the encounter even more compelling. The tension between what’s represented and what isn’t leaves the work resonating. Editor: After spending time with "Painting #5," I leave with the understanding of the continuing dialogue with art's historical role, always ready to create, unmake and reinvent traditions. Curator: I'll leave today inspired by Guedel's language of geometry, and how visual systems persist despite us...and even perhaps within us.