From an Omnious Chord 1945

Editor: So, this is Boris Margo's "From an Ominous Chord," made in 1945, a mixed-media drawing with ink. The overlapping geometric shapes create such a dynamic, unsettling feeling. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Given the title and the date, 1945, the immediate post-war context is unavoidable. But these abstract shapes—do you see any that resemble, perhaps, mechanical or even organic forms struggling to cohere? Editor: I see that. There’s something fragmented about it. The title mentions a chord…suggesting musicality disrupted? Curator: Precisely! Consider the emotional weight of discordant sounds. The "ominous chord" might represent the unresolved tensions of the time, culturally and psychologically. Look at the use of line: frantic, layered, obscuring any clear perspective. Is it chaos, or a kind of rebuilding? Editor: Rebuilding…I like that. It's not just destruction; there's also something being pieced back together, like memory itself. But why so abstract? Curator: Abstraction allowed artists to express the unexpressable: trauma, displacement, a world fundamentally altered. The symbols aren’t literal; they resonate on a deeper, more visceral level, drawing upon collective anxieties and hopes for the future. Margo asks, what can visual abstraction carry and still convey human drama? Editor: That's really interesting. It gives the work so much more depth knowing how it might be tied to its historical context, yet still resonate so broadly. Curator: Exactly. It highlights how deeply embedded symbols can be in our cultural memory, even when seemingly detached from reality. A great deal from such seemingly disparate elements.