Untitled (Shoetree series) 1977

Curator: I'm drawn to the sheer boldness of this drawing, especially given DeFeo’s famous meticulousness. What strikes you first? Editor: There’s an imposing starkness to its form. The drawing feels like a study in contrasts – both in tonality and the suggestion of dimensionality amidst the abstract shapes. Curator: That resonates with how DeFeo explored forms and volumes throughout her career. This piece, "Untitled (Shoetree series)" created in 1977, is a prime example. Crafted with charcoal, graphite, and mixed media, it embodies the search for essential form. It’s also about internal searching during a personally complex time for DeFeo, following the deinstallation and prolonged exhibition of The Rose. Editor: Knowing DeFeo’s biography and struggle, this adds layers. There’s a weightiness here, not just of the dark charcoal, but a sense of absence too. It reflects the politics of display and gender imbalances in artistic canons, as The Rose challenged the patriarchy so directly. I can't help but think about the deconstruction that comes with dismantling grand artworks; how does identity reconstitute itself afterwards? Curator: Indeed. The prominent black form in the lower portion—do you interpret that as a void, a space of potential, or something else? Editor: I read it as both void and potential. It looks to me like it holds a hidden energy, a reservoir of unspoken possibility. Also, given the "Shoetree series" title, could there be commentary here about production, consumption, maybe even loss within capitalism? Shoes speak to our bodies' needs and desires. Curator: The industrial element definitely echoes ideas around post-war industrial production, and even connects with questions about artistic labour. Perhaps there are personal connections in the work's symbols. Editor: This has led to a re-evaluation of DeFeo’s broader practice as intrinsically linked to second-wave feminist movements within artistic labor. Curator: Considering the broader scope of symbols in the piece, from light, shadow and line, what would be our key takeaways for the viewer today? Editor: We’re challenged to contemplate art and life as mutually constitutive through powerful images that remain potent symbols to deconstruct established social narratives and art's role within that structure. Curator: Very powerful. This drawing challenges our assumptions and expands our view.