Man on Verandah 1953

Curator: Stepping back, what’s immediately striking about Alex Colville’s “Man on Verandah,” painted in 1953, is how still everything is. Editor: Yes, an intense stillness! The man is paused, contemplative, looking out... at the edge of the ocean. But something about the scene feels profoundly unsettling despite the idyllic setting. Curator: Colville often created a palpable sense of unease, even in apparently tranquil settings. Look closely and you’ll find a carefully constructed tension between the man, the horizon, and the presence of the cat further inside the room. Editor: Right! The cat sitting rigidly upright, perched on the edge of the table, mirroring the man’s own quietude, maybe? And there’s something about the precise geometric shapes, those distinct divisions in the ocean view that lock our vision. The sea looks so still and the lines look precise almost like in a technical drawing... and what do we know about the cultural history that affected this painting? Curator: After the war, Colville's paintings started resonating profoundly in popular culture. These quiet observations, this sort of suspended animation he captures with his impeccable realism... Colville’s precise approach really speaks to postwar anxieties of the time. You are really left questioning your relationship to technology, war, domesticity, the uncertainty of it all, especially through images and cinema of this moment... this style really speaks to how everything was shifting so fast, right after everything had stopped, or was seemingly brought to an end, finally... if that was even real? Editor: He really creates a haunting visual poem out of the mundane, doesn't he? The fact that the human, cat, and even the water seem to inhabit their own lonely sphere creates a really uncanny sense of being "alone together." I see a painting very much representative of all of those ideas. The mood feels reflective. It speaks so well to themes of solitude and perhaps, just maybe, the simple acceptance of inevitable existential uncertainty... It almost has me hoping to be out of all those uncertainies now... Curator: I agree. And in the face of that uncertainty, a certain peace too, perhaps. It's there in the stillness. Editor: Well put! I will leave feeling at peace, even just from speaking about it... thank you.