Untitled 1961

Here we see an untitled lithograph by Emerson Woelffer. The initial impact is of a vibrant yet orderly arrangement. A black circular line encloses blue and red rectangles, all intersected by a vertical line. Above, short horizontal marks punctuate the space. Woelffer's composition plays with structuralist ideas by deconstructing familiar forms. The circle, bisected, suggests a face or an organic shape, yet the abstract blocks of colour disrupt any clear representation. Red and blue, primary colours, act as signifiers, but their arrangement resists a singular interpretation. The artist destabilizes traditional notions of form and content by presenting a structure that hints at meaning without resolving into a fixed image. Ultimately, the lithograph is an exploration of visual language. It challenges us to consider how meaning is constructed through the interplay of line, colour, and form, revealing the inherent ambiguities within visual communication itself.