[title not known] 1981

Curator: Here we have an intriguing, untitled work by the Scottish artist William Johnstone. Johnstone, who lived from 1897 to 1981, has work in the Tate Collections. Editor: My first thought? It feels like a visual haiku—a stark contrast of black ink against a sea of white. There's a real sense of tension, almost like a silent scream. Curator: Absolutely. Johnstone often explored abstract forms to express psychological landscapes. The interplay between the solid black shapes and the delicate lines...it's like a dance between the conscious and subconscious. Editor: Yeah, and the poem there, "The Question," really hits that anxiety on the head, doesn’t it? The buyer and the haunted… I keep thinking of dark markets and buying and selling, both of objects and of ourselves. Curator: Precisely. Johnstone's art was deeply rooted in his engagement with modernism and its critical perspective on social structures. The poem amplifies that, highlighting themes of acquisition and existential unease. Editor: I think I’ll be haunted by that black blob for a while. It's simple but, like the question it poses, refuses to be easily answered.