Hilltop Sunset, Horizontal Force 1967

Curator: This is Werner Drewes' "Hilltop Sunset, Horizontal Force," a 1967 print showcasing his abstract expressionist style. Editor: My immediate thought? The chaos is exhilarating! A frenetic energy jumps right off the print. The colours feel so loaded with feeling and motion. Curator: Precisely! Look at the dominant blues—often associated with serenity, but here, combined with jagged geometric shapes and juxtaposed next to blacks and pinks they portray an unsettling feeling, as well as one of discombobulation. This reflects the cultural and social turbulence of the 1960s. Editor: Right, because there’s this push and pull, a real tension created by those horizontals. Makes me think about the printmaking process—the labour, the repeated action, all adding up to this textured surface. And considering its historical placement, printmaking had become more popular than ever as more avenues were emerging for art-making practices. Curator: Absolutely. The very *horizontal force* implied in the title gives us an understanding of that dynamism you describe, a landscape perhaps, but disrupted. Sunset imagery also carries so many layers. Here it could symbolize an ending, transition, or maybe even a false hope as society entered an era of immense change and polarization. Editor: You can almost feel the resistance in each colour block, can’t you? All pressing together, as well as acting as agents of resistance—this is definitely a potent piece, full of struggle, right there in the way the thing has been built and applied. Curator: Definitely a multi-layered expression—an active historical symbol capturing anxiety. It challenges viewers to see beyond surface aesthetics, prompting one to acknowledge both beauty and complexity of those times. Editor: True. And on a formal level it really exposes the potential power embedded within the print-making. It leaves you feeling as though something powerful, something material has happened to its core.