Genesis 1:5 1962

Curator: Harold Keeler created this mixed-media print, titled *Genesis 1:5*, in 1962. It’s a striking example of abstract expressionism. Editor: My goodness, that's… intense. I mean, I see red – a massive, dominant red – but also turmoil. It's like peering into some chaotic dawn. Curator: Exactly! It feels like the birth of something raw and powerful. Keeler layers textures and forms. There's the flat, almost brutal application of that strong red, juxtaposed against frenetic scribbles and dense blacks. A fascinating use of mixed media on printmaking, highlighting both control and chance. Editor: Mixed media... Interesting. You can see the different textures at play. The tension between the controlled planes and the wilder marks is where the energy of this piece really lies, wouldn't you say? It is almost aggressive in its materiality. One can imagine him scratching at the printing blocks... Curator: I totally agree. It’s as though he is battling, quite physically, with the material to birth his vision, the namesake, perhaps. There is also a quiet moment as the eye drifts upwards, in contrast to the dominating colors, and we see the touch of serenity that Keeler offers through the calming color, of an earlier, and calmer dusk. Editor: So, thinking of this piece in light of Keeler’s material choices –the density of ink, the printmaking process, this raw, gestural application... – it starts to seem less like a depiction of a single "genesis" and more like a documentation of *Keeler's* personal struggle to bring something into existence. Curator: Ah, I like that. Like an artifact, almost, recording a particular moment in time, and the struggle within. We get the dynamism, the energy of the original event but filtered through his experience. The linocut provides, quite aptly, that contrast that really hits home. Editor: Well, on one level it is incredibly arresting. As the name Genesis, the mark-making is actually the means. Seeing is almost immaterial next to the material impact and labour... Quite potent and affecting when viewed from that standpoint! Curator: Right? When we embrace a new view it's as if it almost unlocks a new world that was hidden in plain sight, just behind this veil of paint. Editor: Indeed.