Screen I 1962 - 1963

Curator: We’re looking at Robert Adams’ “Screen I”, part of the Tate collection. Adams, who lived from 1917 to 1984, worked in a range of media, often exploring abstract forms. Editor: It feels like… a fractured shield. All those triangles, like individual scales, piling up but not quite solid. Kind of unsettling, actually. Curator: Right, the triangle, of course, is a powerful symbol, historically representing everything from stability and the holy trinity to danger and instability. Editor: Interesting. I mainly just see teeth! Or maybe rooftops. It's that warm, earthy palette that draws me in, like old brick or dried blood. Curator: Yes, the repetition does create a sense of architectural structure, but the slight variations in color and the imprecise printing… Editor: …keep it from being too rigid. There's a human touch there. Makes you wonder what Adams was screening out, or maybe, what he was trying to protect. Curator: A potent tension emerges from this delicate dance between pattern and disruption. Editor: Precisely! Like peering through a kaleidoscope of memory and emotion.