Untitled 1973

Editor: Howardena Pindell’s *Untitled* from 1973, done with acrylic paint, feels like looking into the cosmos… it's an all-over painting with fields of deep reds, blues, and purples punctuated by what looks like distant stars. What do you see when you look at it? Curator: Oh, you nailed it. For me, Pindell’s work, particularly from this period, always reads like a deeply personal cosmos. It's like she's charting not just the stars, but also her own internal landscape. See how the colors aren’t blended so much as layered? Each tiny point of paint, each dot, feels like a moment, a thought, a memory. And then those fields of color kind of pull you in, right? They become immersive. Almost like a memory in itself, swirling and overwhelming. Editor: Absolutely! It feels very intuitive and almost dreamlike. Do you think that has to do with her process? Curator: I think it's impossible to separate Pindell’s process from the emotional weight of her work. She would often use stencils or masks, sometimes even materials like confetti or glitter. It's both meticulous and incredibly free. Also, given when she was making this, during a time when abstract expressionism was still heavily dominated by men, there's a really interesting feminist dialogue happening, wouldn’t you say? Taking something ‘messy’ or decorative and making it fine art, on her own terms. Editor: That's such an interesting point; I hadn’t considered that. It changes how I see the piece. I see more intention. Curator: Isn’t that the magic, though? To discover new pathways? It just goes to show that abstraction is anything but vacant. Editor: Totally, I’m glad to be here and share space with this incredible artwork!