The old woman and the girl 1957

Curator: Looking at Rafael Zabaleta's "The old woman and the girl" from 1957, I'm struck by the deliberate manipulation of materials—almost a brutality to the surface. What's your first take? Editor: I find it unsettling, frankly. The high contrast colours and distortions have an alienating effect. But in a strange way, I also sense the protection. Curator: Exactly! Notice how the painting’s symbolic language functions here, consider for example the use of certain colours—those heightened yellows in the old woman’s face, almost masking the face beneath. What do you read there? Editor: I think Zabaleta really calls into question our assumptions about the artistic conventions of the period. I mean, look at the paint itself, how it’s built up—he's more interested in the textures of labour and existence. These subjects wouldn’t have found purchase in other art forms. Curator: Indeed. Beyond that material emphasis, notice the grandmother's hand on the child. Its size suggests an emphasis of support and intergenerational connections. Hands are recurring and complex symbols of protection, authority, and legacy—isn’t that clear here? Editor: And it speaks volumes about rural communities! It’s so much more than the image, really asking the viewers to see it. The work itself is, fundamentally, labor. I love this, really challenges ideas about "high" and "low" art, the class distinctions. Curator: Precisely. Seeing that, you realize these images carry within them echoes of generations that will persist even as time moves forward. Editor: Well, it is more poignant knowing where these pieces landed, I mean socially, but seeing that art can speak, you know, of that place, that community is exciting for sure!