Lesson I 1968

Curator: Here we have John Walker’s “Lesson I,” a truly monumental painting in the Tate collection. Editor: Monumental is right! It feels like looking at a weathered fortress wall, imposing and mysterious. Curator: Walker's use of geometric shapes here—the trapezoids, the squares—seems to evoke both architectural plans and perhaps heraldic emblems. Editor: I love how those almost ghostly shapes at the bottom seem to suggest incomplete forms, like memories fading at the edges. Does it remind you a little of a ruined temple? Curator: It could. Walker often drew inspiration from historical sources, imbuing his abstract forms with echoes of past cultural symbols. It's about hinting at cultural memory. Editor: And isn’t that the fun of it? The invitation to fill in the blanks, to let your own imagination and experiences color the story within the lines. Curator: Exactly! It's a starting point, a 'lesson' perhaps, in how we interpret the world through symbols. Editor: I walk away thinking that even in abstraction, echoes of the past can shape our present.