Exercise in color and shape relations c. 1945

Curator: This is Albert Szabo's "Exercise in color and shape relations," held here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: My first impression is of pixelated constellations, adrift in a pale cosmos. What about you? Curator: Well, the shapes evoke a sense of fragmented memories, or perhaps digital artifacts representing something lost or becoming. Notice the repetition of the square, a symbol of order and structure. Editor: Yet those squares, clustered in vibrant hues, seem to resist that imposed order, dissolving into amorphous forms. It's a dynamic tension, isn't it? Curator: Indeed. Each cluster could represent a psychological landscape, with the varying colors signaling shifts in emotional terrain. The black squares scattered throughout could be a reference to the ever-present unconscious. Editor: Or perhaps purely compositional elements, grounding points in an otherwise weightless field. The formal relationships are so carefully balanced. Curator: Precisely, the artist is investigating how shapes and colors interact, creating a visual language beyond representation. Editor: It's fascinating how simple geometric forms can evoke such complex readings. Curator: And that's the power of visual symbols, isn't it? They reflect us back to ourselves.