Isolator 1935

Curator: This is Eugen Wiškovský’s photograph, "Isolator," housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. What are your immediate impressions? Editor: I’m struck by the drama of light and shadow. The geometric shapes create a sense of isolation, almost clinical. Curator: Wiškovský was deeply involved in the Bauhaus movement, which aimed to unite art, craft, and technology. He used everyday objects to create abstract compositions. Editor: It reminds me of the modernist fascination with industrial materials and a desire to represent a rational, ordered world. But it also speaks to how we can be disconnected, even isolated, within these systems. Curator: It’s a powerful reminder of the complex relationship between progress and the individual. Editor: Absolutely. Art gives us a means to reflect on those tensions.