Venetian Atmosphere n.d.

Curator: Oh, there's something so captivating about this! This is "Venetian Atmosphere" by an anonymous artist. It's held here at the Art Institute of Chicago and while the date is unknown, it seems like it would make quite a moody, contemplative piece. Editor: It really does. The palette is almost entirely muted greys and browns, like a city cloaked in the mist or perhaps veiled in a collective melancholy. It feels like looking at Venice through a filter of societal anxieties and hierarchies. Curator: I see it! It makes me feel like I’m right there, gliding along in a gondola. I feel the coolness, the hush before a storm… you know, the light on the water. There is some magic here. What do you make of the impressionistic brushstrokes? Editor: The loose brushwork definitely contributes to the atmospheric quality and it mirrors the ways that power structures have blurred in Venetian paintings of the time. This lends a sense of fluidity to the composition and, paradoxically, obscures social issues around access, labor, and inequality which existed, still exist, beyond that superficial elegance. Curator: So true! I bet it’s a mixed-media piece – definitely watercolor and gouache. You can see layers upon layers of colour. Venice has been a stage for grand narratives, both in art and history, but behind that glamour lies its shadow – you feel this through the drawing itself. What purpose do you think it has served to mask the artist's name? Editor: Right! Anonymity opens up multiple interpretations; maybe a critique of authorship or an understanding that the identity and context of art is itself an exercise of exclusion and marginalisation. Art is always created within certain socio-political realities and power dynamics. We do not even need a signature. We need action. Curator: Beautifully said. It leaves me feeling… inspired, definitely, by the artist's singular perspective, yet melancholic. Venice feels suspended somehow between grandeur and decline, I think they really capture it here, intentionally or not! Editor: Precisely! And it forces us to confront not only the beauty but also the inequities interwoven into that beautiful cityscape and into our history books. Now let us consider ways that we might resist this pattern and construct futures more beautiful, equal and full.