Landscape 1961

Editor: This watercolor landscape by Jacqueline Lamba, painted in 1961, is just exploding with color! The brushstrokes are so loose and free, it almost feels like I'm looking at a dream. How do you interpret this work, given its blend of representation and abstraction? Curator: What I see is a visual poem of sorts. The image teems with symbols that point towards an inner landscape more so than a mimetic reproduction of the external world. Think of the archetypal symbol of a garden, often representing paradise, refuge, a space of flourishing. Lamba, having navigated surrealist circles and tumultuous relationships, might be using this image to evoke a space of personal regeneration, of inner growth. Editor: That’s interesting. I was focused on the colors, but I didn’t think about what they might signify. Curator: Precisely. Notice the reds and oranges mixed with greens and blues – perhaps suggesting the passions tempered by serenity. How do the tree-like structures framing the central area affect your reading? Do they feel protective, or perhaps constricting? Editor: I see both, actually. There’s a sense of being enveloped, but also maybe held back. Could it be about reconciling freedom with limitations? Curator: It’s possible. Lamba’s life was about pushing boundaries, while constantly negotiating societal expectations and the constraints placed upon women artists, in particular, during that era. So this visual tension might speak volumes about that personal and artistic struggle. Editor: I am definitely seeing new layers in it now. Thanks, that gives me a lot to think about. Curator: My pleasure. Art, after all, speaks when we take the time to listen to the symbolic language.