People in Boxes: The Angry 1975

Wallace Kelly made this print called “People in Boxes: The Angry” with graphic shapes and a limited color palette. It’s on paper, so I’m imagining the flatness of the marks and the way they sit together. I feel a certain kind of sympathy for Kelly trying to work out how to express anger without actually showing it directly. It’s like he is saying anger is geometric; an imposition on our bodies. These figures seem trapped, each isolated, and alone in their experience. You can sense the compression of their bodies into the abstract shapes, echoing the feeling of being contained by anger. The lines are sharp, decisive, and unforgiving, defining the figures and their confining boxes. The bright yellow background adds to the tension, creating a sense of unease. When you look at this work in the context of other figural painters, I’m reminded how much artists borrow from each other through time, each adding their own slant. I can't help but think that "People in Boxes" is one way to consider the emotional spaces we occupy, or that occupy us.