Color heart with spaghetti 1967

Curator: Here we have Christian Attersee’s striking 1967 acrylic on canvas, "Color Heart with Spaghetti." Editor: It’s… a lot. My immediate impression is organized chaos. The bold checkerboard background juxtaposed with this somewhat grotesque heart figure is disorienting, but also intriguing. Curator: Absolutely. The painting masterfully balances disparate visual elements. Notice how Attersee uses the framing of a centered circular shape against the geometric field. Editor: The circle itself feels like a plate presentation. And the 'spaghetti', these dark tubular forms, simultaneously feel both tactile and representational of something vaguely intestinal. It all conjures up images associated with the alimentary canal. The palette also speaks to the cultural moment; bright but artificial. Curator: Indeed, the Pop Art influence is unmistakable. The work subverts traditional still life through playful symbolism and material exploration. We see a cartoonish representation that borrows recognizable tropes – in the West, spaghetti symbolizes comfort. However, that symbol becomes troubled by Attersee's visceral presentation. Editor: Look at the heart motif; it's almost melting, dripping with what appears to be… cheese? I detect some playful but also darker commentary here on love, consumption, perhaps even commodification. Curator: The flat, graphic treatment is key to unpacking the work's meaning. While undeniably visceral, it doesn't allow us any classical painterly indulgence or romanticizing. Attersee seems to point to love and comfort’s constructed nature and fleeting tangibility. The heart itself might signify Western ideas surrounding the seat of love or even identity; the spaghetti might suggest connections or shared bonds being pulled apart and tangled up with cultural tropes and signifiers like "pasta." Editor: It does challenge conventional notions of these archetypes. A truly unique visual feast, unsettling as it may be. Curator: Yes. This painting, with its vibrant tension, forces us to confront the artificiality inherent in cultural symbolism.