Paisagem Mayor 2009

Pedro Calapez made this painting, Paisagem Mayor, which translates as ‘Major Landscape’, with oil on canvas. It looks like it was a real labour of love. I can imagine him making these marks, each one a little world. Each canvas a site of inquiry, where colours bleed and blend. I see him, sleeves rolled up, lost in thought as he moves and shifts these intense colour combinations around, almost like he is wrestling with them. The paint looks smooth and fluid, especially in the panel where a deep red melts into black – the intensity! What do you make of the way he’s brought these together as one overall piece? Painters are always riffing off each other’s ideas. I see echoes of Rothko, maybe de Kooning too. It's a reminder that art never happens in isolation, but through an ongoing conversation that crosses time. The beauty of painting is that there are no fixed meanings, only suggestions. The artwork is open to multiple interpretations, and that is how it should be.