Cigar 1978

Curator: This is "Cigar," a 1978 print by Patrick Caulfield, rendered in striking acrylic paint and graphic art techniques. What catches your eye first about it? Editor: The bold simplicity! It's almost aggressively straightforward. That hard-edged rendering of a cigar on a plate...it's both comical and strangely unsettling, juxtaposed against that patterned ground. Like a cartoon advertisement gone slightly wrong. Curator: Caulfield had this amazing knack for elevating the everyday object to iconic status, didn’t he? The flat planes of color, those crisp black outlines, they lend a sense of mass production while maintaining a singular identity. You feel the process and technique when facing this print. Editor: Mass production definitely rings true. There's a fascinating contrast happening, too. Look at the texture the artist has given to the "table" of what could be a cafe; those small irregular dark forms resemble fragments like construction waste such as terrazzo! Is this meant to be enjoyed with my morning coffee? I almost feel it questions consumption habits, and how mass printing democratises the visual enjoyment, and, of course, possession of an art piece. Curator: Exactly. Caulfield's genius lay in taking these traditionally commercial techniques – graphic art, printmaking – and infusing them with a modern, almost classical sensibility. I sense a feeling of longing and introspection as I consider how an intimate moment like a moment of pleasure can turn into just a mass-consumed element. It plays with visual irony. Editor: Irony's a perfect word. It makes you think about how something as luxurious as a cigar is represented in such a graphic, almost crude way. It disrupts the perceived associations with wealth and exclusivity that you’d normally find linked to tobacco. This feels incredibly appropriate for late 70s society's own challenges and deconstruction. Curator: It certainly disrupts expectations and asks questions without lecturing, don’t you think? As a print made in acrylic paint, it invites a deeper consideration about art's connection with labor and society. I will now walk away, possibly heading straight towards an existential crisis triggered by an image of a cigar! Editor: Indeed! An exquisite piece, reflecting and questioning the aesthetics of its era through simple yet powerful graphic choices, inviting reflections on commerce and representation through unexpected materials and subject matter.