Untitled 1933

Curator: Looking at this "Untitled" drawing and watercolor work from 1933 by John Ferren, I immediately notice how delicate the geometric lines feel. The composition evokes a sense of light radiating outward. Editor: The sparseness, those thin watercolor washes…It makes me wonder about Ferren's access to materials during the Depression. This level of abstraction surely reflected an intention to produce art at reduced material cost and perhaps distribute his work amongst more people. Curator: Interesting point. But within its economy, don't you think there is also such attention paid to formal arrangements? How the colored shapes interplay, balance, create dynamism across the plane... The fine black lines add just enough counterpoint to hold everything together. Editor: Perhaps... I'm thinking more about what these forms represent outside themselves. Was Ferren making any social commentary by creating work like this when so many people lacked necessities? Could his approach be read as wasteful during this period, given the economic climate? Curator: Even through pure shapes, though, he creates mood. See the faint blushing reds blending out from peach into pinks, offset by harder, industrial blues and yellows—they still evoke an emotive dialogue, don't they? It may be formally "Untitled", but surely, it stirs some emotional or sensorial meaning? Editor: Absolutely. It's all intertwined. We can't isolate material conditions from aesthetics any more than we can truly abstract art from the society in which it was made. Labor—its presence and, arguably, its relative absence here—still matters, it influences every mark! Curator: True, but there is so much care and thought to the balance and chromatic impact here; the interplay between thin line and airy wash cannot be simply ignored. Editor: Fair enough, it strikes a balance, wouldn’t you agree, between surface and deeper contextual meanings, making for such compelling viewing and inquiry even now. Curator: Absolutely. And those quiet, subtle color choices and their effect certainly resonate.