Ordered Tempest 1967

Curator: Alberto Magnelli’s "Ordered Tempest," created in 1967, presents an intriguing interplay of geometric forms and muted tones. What’s your initial impression? Editor: My first thought is controlled chaos. The title hints at it, but the shapes, while defined, feel like they’re bursting out from somewhere within the frame. There's an interesting tension between the sharp lines and earth tones. Curator: Precisely! Magnelli, deeply involved in geometric abstraction, uses very specific materials to create this effect. Considering that it was the late sixties, there are interesting echoes here with architectural and design trends, and I see connections with the broader social interest in the interaction of structure and form. Editor: Right. The color palette does seem deliberate. I am particularly interested in how it plays against some of the contemporary pop art movements of the time. Does this palette have any relation to Magnelli’s biography and studio practice? Curator: Absolutely. The artist was experimenting with industrial materials. Magnelli's production process included a focus on the construction of planes of color, arranged, re-arranged, almost mass-produced, with slight variation in order to better express what he felt he saw about society at the time. His emphasis on planes really reflects on what industry represented during his time. Editor: And it feels timeless, almost like fragments of something much larger pieced together. The labor of abstraction— the conscious choices of medium, shape, the act of the artist attempting to represent the tempests of labor under industrialization is really evident. Curator: I think that reading gets to the heart of why this piece is so captivating. And the gallery contextualization, its physical place in this space as an artwork is key to helping that reading take place, given this collection and institution. Editor: Agreed, the politics of this image— the tension that emerges when you read this as both formal exploration, as a kind of interiority made public, and as commentary, which adds such depth to this piece. Thank you. Curator: Indeed. The ways he utilizes labor to question order, and structure to play with form and context makes this artwork a really worthwhile discussion.