13. ‘We wanted to bleed the silence’ 1973

Curator: Patrick Caulfield, born in 1936, is the artist responsible for this print, titled ‘We wanted to bleed the silence.’ Editor: It's immediately striking—the bold red and those almost cartoonish blue handles. It has a very graphic quality, doesn't it? Curator: Caulfield often played with the contrast between flat, simplified forms and recognizable, everyday objects. Those handles especially are imbued with a certain symbolic weight. They almost feel like stylized tears against that vibrant red. Editor: I wonder if that has anything to do with the piece's title. I mean, 'bleed the silence'… it feels politically charged, as if the silence is enforced. Curator: Perhaps. Caulfield came of age artistically in a period of enormous social change, a time when artists felt compelled to challenge the status quo. The domestic setting contrasted with the aggressive title and loud colors really gives me something to think about. Editor: It's certainly a conversation starter. That tension, that deliberate clash, is what makes it stay with you, I think.