R. B. and W. Spiral for A. 1991

Terry Frost created "R. B. and W. Spiral for A." with paint, sometime during his career as an abstract artist, after experiencing the trauma of being a prisoner of war. Frost, like many of his generation, lived through the second world war. Abstraction offered these artists freedom from the constraints of representation. It was a way to express the interiority of experience, a visual language for rendering emotion. As Frost himself said, he wanted his art to give people "the feeling of joy or sadness, elation or depression." The stark contrast between the red, black, and white in "R. B. and W. Spiral for A." suggests both the vibrancy and the starkness of human emotion. The spiral might evoke the disorientation of trauma, but it also echoes forms found in nature, such as whirlpools or galaxies. There's an inherent sense of movement, a feeling of being drawn into the center. "R. B. and W. Spiral for A." encapsulates the artist's emotional and intellectual journey. It visualizes the complexities of human experience while offering a pathway to contemplation.