Sunset 1904

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis made this dreamy "Sunset" with what looks like pastel or maybe thin paint, where process is everything. There’s a gorgeous, hazy quality to it, like looking through a soft lens. I love how the colors bleed into each other – the pinks and yellows at the top, melting into the darker reds and greens below. It feels less like a literal sunset and more like a memory of one, or an idea of one. The texture seems almost velvety, a really tactile surface. Notice that horizontal stroke of red near the middle? It's like a jolt of energy, disrupting the calm, maybe a little like Rothko. Ciurlionis was a total mystic, trying to capture the unseen, and you see that here. It reminds you that art isn’t just about copying what you see, but about feeling, about trying to show something you can’t put into words, and just throwing it all out there.