Untitled 1964

Here we have an untitled print by Peter Phillips. Right away, the boldness of the forms and the high-key colors feel so deliberate, almost like he’s setting up a stage. The whole thing is rendered with such flat, graphic precision, you get the sense that it's all about clear communication, like a diagram. But diagrams of what? It's like Phillips is laying down these intensely detailed forms and colors, inviting us to decode it. Take the way the black grid floats in the background, it both contains and contrasts with the swirling, multi-colored coils that jut out into the foreground. How do the industrial, machine-like shapes fit with the softer, more organic forms? Maybe he's thinking about how to depict the chaos of modern life. Or maybe he's just having fun smashing together high and low art. Phillips is like a visual DJ, remixing all sorts of images to make us question what we see and how we see it, much like Richard Hamilton’s collages from the '50s. It's less about finding answers and more about embracing the glorious ambiguity of it all.