Beetles and hand 

Curator: Eileen Agar's mixed media collage, "Beetles and Hand," presents us with an intriguing visual arrangement. The drawing combines ink, watercolor and collage, mounted within a strong blue frame. Editor: Instantly, there’s a feeling of both delicacy and… impending doom, maybe? That hand, reaching up from the abyss, contrasting with the entomological study above. It's like a scientist's nightmare. Curator: The composition relies on contrasting textures and forms, foregrounding the stylized hand, rendered in stark black, its curves echoed in the delicate rendering of beetles amongst foliage in the middle ground. Note how Agar uses collage to construct the ground upon which these forms reside; how do you see this playing with modernist concerns? Editor: Playing with! I see it as an assertion. That jagged edge of collage, slicing through the otherwise ‘orderly’ botanical illustration of beetles, feels like a rebellious tear in the fabric of reality, of what’s knowable. The contrast is not merely aesthetic; it’s disruptive. Curator: A disruption that pushes toward the unconscious, no doubt influenced by Surrealist principles of her time. The work’s juxtaposition and disorienting scales destabilize any fixed narrative. Editor: Exactly! My mind races toward ancient myths, forbidden knowledge. Is the hand reaching to grasp the secret of the beetles, a dark natural science? Or is it being repelled? The dream logic Agar employs so well really opens up all those fun, scary doors. Curator: Certainly the unsettling feeling stems from the ambiguity of relationships within the composition; its beauty invites an exploration of the dialectical images present: life and death, beauty and the grotesque, rational order and psychic fragmentation. Editor: Ultimately, it’s the vulnerability captured in that poised reach and crawling carapace. These beetles might be armored, and that hand imposing in shadow, but they each feel precariously balanced. You could breathe on them, and the whole scene would unravel, you know? A wonderful piece!