Progression 

Editor: We’re looking at Richard Paul Lohse’s ‘Progression’, an abstract piece featuring vibrant squares and rectangles. It's visually striking with this clear dedication to line, with what looks like primary colours, but I'm curious: what specifically draws your eye to this artwork? Curator: What immediately interests me is the seemingly simple construction – the grid. Think about the materials employed, the paint itself, and the surface it’s applied to. Are they industrially produced? Are they meticulously hand-mixed and applied? Editor: That's an interesting angle. I was more focused on the colours. Curator: But the colours *are* the material, aren't they? Consider their origins. Are these pigments derived from synthetic processes? Do they reference industrial standards or perhaps earlier, natural dyes? And look at how the artist painstakingly arranges each plane; there's a repetition but, in fact, the painting changes with very unique placements of colour and shape. Editor: So, you're saying the arrangement is intentional. How might the societal or labor context inform such choices? Curator: Absolutely. Think about the post-war context. Lohse was part of a generation grappling with rebuilding and reimagining societal structures. His interest in systematism would be viewed by him as a response, where the social and economic conditions that made possible an embrace of manufactured colour fields and mechanical precision is an ode to both production, consumption and industry. Editor: It shifts my perspective to think about ‘Progression’ not just as colours on a surface, but as a visual document. Thank you. Curator: Exactly, it all builds up in terms of industrial, material impact and consumption. Always important when encountering abstract works.