Wall Paper c. 1939

Curator: Standing before us is "Wall Paper," an acrylic and watercolour design on paper crafted around 1939 by Holger Hansen. What strikes you first? Editor: A peculiar calm. The rusty background hue seems strangely comforting, like an old blanket. It really sets the tone of this decorative style piece. Curator: It’s deceptive, isn’t it? While the colours and repeating design might feel calming, if you trace the arrangement, the composition almost pulsates, expanding and contracting, not so restful as perhaps jarring. Editor: That's a smart point. The central motif, that abstracted palmetto, pushes outwards while the laurel-like leaves create an enclosing rhythm, a formal device designed to...perhaps overwhelm when scaled up? It reminds me of how dizzy wallpaper can make me sometimes. Curator: Precisely. Hansen seems to be acutely aware of that very possibility. Think about how our eye is ceaselessly pushed to wander from motif to motif, and yet caught again each time by the rigid square it all sits in. Editor: It’s like he’s playing with visual anchors, pulling you in, and then politely shooing you away. Given the era it was made, could this also represent a sort of societal control and manufactured calm amid political instability? Curator: Interesting conjecture! This was a turbulent era and to apply that theory provides us with new understandings that only adds layers of fascination and questions to an artist working with ostensibly ‘mere decoration.' I'm reminded of Adorno, that everything, even decoration, bears the burden of history. Editor: You know, I approached this thinking it was aesthetically pretty but sort of "simple." I realize there's some complexity here, a back and forth with visual language. Maybe that's the inherent nature of decorative art to either unsettle or seduce. Curator: In Holger Hansen’s "Wall Paper," there is definitely a narrative beyond its design on surface appearance! It encourages us to look again, not just at the aesthetic level, but also to perceive it with critical eyes as part of the tapestry of it’s own story.