Barns 1966

Editor: Eyvind Earle’s "Barns," created in 1966 using acrylic paint, presents an intriguing arrangement of geometric forms. I am struck by the vertical lines in each building; the process seems so deliberate and controlled. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Consider the social context of the barn, usually places of intense labor and vital to agricultural production. Here, those functions are suppressed by Earle's clean lines. The buildings appear less functional and more like modules or standardized units. Editor: So you're saying Earle is less concerned with the labor usually associated with the buildings and more interested in form? Curator: Precisely! And I would say Earle is focused on the consumption aspect: suburbanization and even mass housing that might rely on simple construction, using serial materials like simple planks. These are *barns*, yet rendered without depth and any evidence of weathering, giving them the aura of objects fresh from a factory floor. What does the treatment of the acrylic medium tell you about Earle's artistic intentions? Editor: It looks smooth and almost industrial rather than painterly, reinforcing the idea of a manufactured aesthetic, devoid of expressive gesture. Curator: It appears that Earle elevated a basic form through an almost factory-line level of refinement of the building process and material used, presenting the possibility of transforming mundane architecture into objects of almost art. Editor: Seeing this through the lens of labor, materiality, and production, it opens up questions about the value we place on form versus function. Curator: Agreed, I find the social commentary revealed within those acrylic forms really remarkable.