Żółte róże 1923

Tadeusz Makowski made this painting of yellow roses, but we don't know exactly when, or where. The roses in the painting are yellow and the leaves are green, not exactly groundbreaking, but the colour palette is muted. The brushstrokes are visible, like the artist wanted us to see the paint, not just the roses. You can imagine him carefully building up the layers, mixing the colours just so, and deciding when it was finished. I wonder if Makowski was thinking about van Gogh when he made this? Both artists had that painterly quality. It’s like they are saying that painting itself can be the subject. Maybe Makowski wanted to show that even something as simple as a vase of roses can be interesting if you look closely enough. It feels like he's inviting us to slow down and appreciate the small things. He knew that artists build on one another’s ideas, riffing off them, disagreeing and adding their own twist.