Untitled 1962

Curator: Before us is a work by Richards Ruben, simply titled "Untitled," created in 1962. It’s a mixed-media piece on paper, incorporating drawing and painting techniques. Editor: It’s certainly arresting. The muted palette and layered lines evoke a sense of… trauma, almost. There's a visceral quality to it that's hard to ignore. Curator: Ruben's artistic journey involved explorations of line and form, often blurring the lines between abstraction and representation. He moved fluidly across mediums, embracing the textures and possibilities of his chosen materials. His working process favored using commonplace materials. Editor: The layering here is really fascinating. The drawn elements— those almost frantic lines—create a restless energy. And the placement of those opaque patches of colour against them seems quite deliberate, disrupting any easy reading of the image. Tell me more about how it's made? Curator: It seems he worked the materials – pencil, ink and gouache – to test their possibilities, almost brutally so at times, evident through the scraping and layering on the paper. These techniques add to the work's emotive and psychological impact, giving viewers a view into Ruben's process and the environment of artistic labor. Editor: Do you think that process is necessarily evident? While I appreciate that the means of production matter, what's foremost for me is the arrangement of elements, that structural imbalance—the heaviness at the bottom against the relative emptiness above—which speaks to themes of grief or possibly regeneration after some event. Curator: In his body of work, you see how he embraced the constraints and opportunities presented by everyday materials, highlighting the democratic potential of art making. And, yes, Ruben had a deeply considered plan about it: the point was in being able to source his materials in regular environments as well. Editor: That emphasis on accessible materials challenges traditional art world hierarchies, blurring the lines between the studio and everyday life and pushing past conventional notions about the art's production. And with these insights you've added for us here, one can now see a deeper, structural narrative forming, built as much by intent and access as by shape and form. Curator: Indeed, what may appear as simple gestural abstraction reveals itself as an intense act of material investigation and, with that in mind, this helps give us insights into its meaning and artistic intent. Editor: So by understanding its historical and material existence, the abstraction comes alive. It’s more like a physical, tangible thing, imbued with energy and also its maker’s historical place in society.