Print 1 1972

Curator: Nolan's "Print 1," held here at the Tate, explodes with raw energy. It's all jagged edges and intense contrasts. My first impression is primal scream. Editor: Those jagged edges, that aggressive composition--it reminds me of the socio-political upheavals happening mid-century. Nolan, as a white Australian artist, benefits from a colonial legacy that needs interrogating. Curator: True, but the mark-making itself feels like an attempt to grapple with something intensely personal. The colors, like volcanic embers, burn with a sense of urgency. Editor: It’s easy to read this urgency as simply aesthetic. What might that urgency have obscured or rendered invisible? Whose stories remain untold here? Curator: Perhaps Nolan, in his own imperfect way, was reaching for something universal, something about the human condition stripped bare. Editor: Or perhaps the rawness is a performance of authenticity that further entrenches colonial power structures. Curator: I still find a strange beauty in the struggle, even if it's a flawed one. Editor: And I find value in acknowledging its complexities, interrogating its silences.