"Greetings 1952" 

Curator: Let's spend some time contemplating "Greetings 1952," a compelling print by Louis Schanker. Editor: My initial thought is this has the texture of a memory. Almost dreamlike in the way it combines harsh angles with more lyrical looping lines. Curator: Exactly. It’s an etching, meaning the lines are incised into a metal plate, holding ink to make the image. The result is this lovely interplay between density and delicate marks that structure the picture plane. Editor: Those circular forms feel so buoyant and joyous, like party streamers frozen in mid-air, amidst all this more rigorous line work, a bit of a counterpoint perhaps? Curator: Perhaps a visual rendering of optimism amid structural frameworks of mid-century design? Look closely at how the colours play out. Notice how the print integrates planes of ochre and then bleeds into muted greens. Schanker was involved with various movements of abstraction at this time in his life and really pushes the concept of "pure" line and the expressive capability of colour in conveying atmosphere and mood. Editor: It strikes me as incredibly bold for such a small-scale work, like it wants to be grandiose and monumental but pulls itself back in, a certain reserved quality. Do you think the "greetings" implies a kind of hopefulness amidst post-war rebuilding, this sentimentality for a collective moment, maybe, that many can connect to? Curator: I feel like there's a tension between its formal restraint and that overture, "Greetings". Like, how can something so architecturally structured still carry such an inviting sentiment? Editor: It seems the medium itself might mirror that restraint though, the fine art print having been democratized as a popular artform and greeting. Curator: The brilliance of "Greetings 1952" truly lies in this balance between a modernist grid, with the playfulness, that it achieves with such deceptively simple materials. Editor: In that sense, it truly exemplifies a uniquely post-war perspective on how society can be envisioned: the desire to communicate but the necessity to remain pragmatic. It does capture a certain time, a particular period in time.