Kaufmann House 

Curator: Welcome. Today, we’re considering a painting entitled *Kaufmann House* by Carrie Graber. It presents a striking example of modernist architecture. Editor: Right, my immediate reaction? Golden hour and total serenity! It's like a dream I had after binge-watching a design show and then taking a long nap in the sun. Curator: The piece very clearly situates itself within a modernist fascination with geometry and light, but perhaps also reflects anxieties related to utopianism, and to domestic space itself. We should remember that modernism coincided with a complete reconsideration of the spatial dimensions of lived experience, alongside gender and class. Editor: Woah. I was just thinking that the way the light bounces off the pool is like liquid diamonds. You're diving deep! Okay, I can dig it, though. I see how the geometric composition lends itself to, well, a certain detached, idealized feeling. The lounge chairs are perfectly placed. There isn’t any clutter, no chaos. Is it too perfect? Curator: The manicured lawn, the severe geometry—we could read that as a commentary on control, perhaps reflecting broader concerns about the perceived sterility of modern living, but, also, race and class issues bound up with architecture and access. The house as a space and symbol...it excludes as much as it includes, doesn't it? Who gets to live there, and what social order does the structure enforce? Editor: Hmmm, it feels so luxurious, but you're right. The house itself is very cool but not necessarily "warm". Now I am also wondering about who designed it, lived there and worked there and…whether I could sneak a pool day in there sometime soon? Curator: Absolutely! What’s so vital about art is precisely this potential to ask seemingly simple, even aesthetic questions. And I suppose, maybe also to recognize our own place in those frames, the perspectives we take for granted as viewers. Editor: Yeah! Thanks for throwing a little critical theory sunshine on my architectural fantasy. Next time, maybe we should look at a haunted house for a change!