New Mexico 2 1970

Curator: This is Bernard Cohen's "New Mexico 2," held in the Tate Collections. The dimensions of the image are roughly 629 by 918 mm. Editor: It evokes a vast, empty landscape with scattered settlements, maybe symbolizing isolation and distance? Curator: Perhaps a meditation on minimalist aesthetics during a period of complex social change? The sparseness could challenge traditional notions of representation. Editor: The yellow dots might reference indigenous symbols, or even cartographic markers. The lack of context is frustrating, almost a visual erasure. Curator: I see the title as a deliberate clue—conjuring the American Southwest, a region fraught with political tensions and cultural collisions. Editor: Maybe Cohen's intention was to leave meaning open, an incomplete map for us to project ourselves onto. Curator: Precisely, encouraging us to question the narratives we impose on landscapes, on each other.