Color Drawing for Tondo 1964

Curator: This is Fritz Glarner's "Color Drawing for Tondo," housed right here at the Harvard Art Museums. I find it so refreshing. Editor: It feels like a blueprint, doesn't it? A circular framework punctuated with blocks of primary color. Curator: Glarner was deeply invested in neo-plasticism. You see it in his deliberate choices – the bare minimum of hues, the grid, the… Editor: The striving for universality through simple forms? Absolutely. It makes you wonder about his studio practice: the pencils he used, the very paper itself. What kind of labor went into something so seemingly effortless? Curator: And, of course, the tondo format is fascinating. Historically, it references the Renaissance, yet Glarner strips it bare. The context shifts entirely. Editor: I suppose it is his way of making a statement, to strip bare established institutions. Curator: Exactly. It's a conversation between the hand, the history, and the sociopolitical landscape. Editor: It really does make you reconsider the value we assign to the act of creating. Curator: It does. It is interesting to consider these points.