Mechano-Faktura Construction 1924

Henryk Berlewi made this construction with a distinct palette of black, red, and cream, and a very particular, yet playful, arrangement of shapes. When I look at this painting I think of a city, with the black and red lines forming buildings that are rising into the sky. I imagine Berlewi, brush in hand, carefully applying the paint to create these strong, geometric forms. The cream background feels warm, like sunlight on the buildings. It’s so cool how the shapes are hard and distinct, and how they seem to interact with each other in a spatial game, making a statement about form and composition. I think of other constructivist artists like El Lissitzky, who were also experimenting with geometric abstraction. It’s like they were all having a conversation with each other through their art, bouncing ideas around and seeing where they could take them. It reminds me that painting is a continuous dialogue, with artists building on the ideas of those who came before them, and pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.