Untitled 

Curator: This is an untitled painting by Michel Carrade, using acrylic paint in what could be classified as geometric abstraction. Editor: The composition is quite striking! It's hard to look away from these bold, vertical stripes of vibrant color. There's an optical illusion feel too. Is it moving or static? Curator: Exactly, that is what Carrade’s works sought to accomplish; pushing the boundaries of visual perception with pieces that border on Op Art, reflecting wider trends in abstraction. Carrade's work actively engaged with contemporaneous discourses around hard-edge painting and colour-field theories, so his art needs to be assessed in this historical context. Editor: The linear simplicity emphasizes pure color and the interactions between these planes of color; those shifts between red, blue, orange – how do you read them? The eye bounces, doesn’t it? Curator: This abstraction developed parallel to the social context of urban modernization after the Second World War. The embrace of non-representational forms symbolized a progressive departure from traditional, perhaps conservative, modes of seeing and thinking. Art as an expression of modernity. Editor: Agreed! Modernity in color! This reminds me how crucial color is to formal impact, that you can derive almost tactile impressions through hues. A radical distillation of form. Curator: But look beyond the individual visual impression and reflect also on how institutions like galleries legitimized this abstract language during the Cold War period to position Western art and thought. Editor: Yes, true enough... Thank you for opening this larger horizon, bringing this historical framework to what on the surface appears like simply color and structure. Curator: The relationship between artistic vision, societal progress, and institutional endorsement always needs exploring.