Rabbits 1932

Tadeusz Makowski made this painting of rabbits at an unknown date, with a brush full of earthy pigments. Imagine Makowski, surrounded by a warren of bunnies, trying to capture their nervous energy in strokes of paint. How to catch the light on their fur, the twitch of their noses? I can almost feel the brush in my own hand, attempting to corral these elusive creatures onto the canvas. They are there, but also not quite, a blurred proliferation in the hay. I love the way the repeated motif is a way of talking about painting itself, the way a form can be created in slight variation – the way a painter like Morandi would keep returning to the same bottles in different light. These bunnies feel like a painterly investigation, an invitation to slow down and see.