Study for ‘Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple’ c. 1922 - 1925

Curator: This is William Roberts's "Study for ‘Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple’" from the Tate Collections. Editor: Angular figures frozen in a dance of commerce and confrontation – it feels like suppressed energy about to explode. Curator: Note the use of the grid, likely employed to aid the transposition of this preparatory sketch into a larger composition. The figures themselves are rendered with sharp, geometric forms. Editor: Roberts really captures the frenzy with these jagged lines, doesn't he? It’s as if he is deconstructing the very idea of sanctity. Curator: Indeed. The reduction of form emphasizes the underlying structure, speaking to Roberts's formal concerns as well as the work’s thematic intensity. Editor: Makes you wonder what he truly thought about the narrative—rebellion, maybe? I leave here, picturing Christ upending tables and assumptions.