Garden with Ladder 1998

Constantin Flondor’s 'Garden with Ladder' is made with fluid strokes of paint, building up layers of brown, green, and off-white. The colour palette makes me feel like I'm looking at an archeological dig. The paint application looks very physical, especially when you notice the way the colour is built up around the lines which constitute the garden. It’s as if the paint itself is trying to form the shapes that the lines are describing. I wonder if Flondor mixed any other materials with the paint, since it has the consistency of clay. I'm reminded of the work of Cy Twombly, particularly in the use of line to conjure form. But where Twombly has an airy openness, Flondor is dense and overgrown. Both artists embrace ambiguity, reminding us that art isn't about fixed meanings, but about opening up new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.