Family Group 1954

Curator: Dorothy Dehner's watercolor work, "Family Group," immediately strikes me as playful, almost like origami figures caught in a dance. Editor: The angular figures do have a certain energy. Dehner's exploration of form aligns with mid-century abstraction, a period where artists grappled with representing human experience after the war. How do we see family represented here? Curator: It’s interesting that Dehner titles it as such. Note the contrast between the cool blues and grays on the left and right versus the warm pinks and oranges in the center. It's a family not quite united, perhaps, but certainly connected through form and color. Editor: Exactly. We can consider how gender, race, and power dynamics are in play, even in these abstract forms. Who gets to take up space and how are those spaces defined? I see a challenge to traditional family portraiture in the 20th century. Curator: It certainly pushes beyond simple representation, and Dehner's exploration of abstract forms is powerful. Editor: Absolutely, it reminds us that family is a construct, represented here with both tenderness and tension.