Untitled 1972

Curator: This is an untitled piece by A. R. Penck, part of the Harvard Art Museums' collection. It’s a striking composition in black on a square off-white ground. Editor: It feels almost primal, like cave paintings. I’m drawn to these bold, almost glyph-like shapes and the way they're so deliberately arranged, or seemingly not. Curator: Penck was fascinated by information theory and communication. These figures, or "stick figures," as he called them, became a visual language for him. Editor: Right. It’s like an alphabet, a code to be deciphered, but it's also playfully evocative. See the two dots in the bottom left? Eyes peering out from a dark void. Curator: Precisely. It’s about conveying complex ideas through simplified forms, tapping into a collective understanding. Even the wavy lines at the bottom, they could represent a boundary, a horizon. Editor: I like that, the horizon as a limit. It’s as if Penck is mapping out not only a visual language but also the edges of perception itself. A powerful piece, despite its apparent simplicity.