Abstraction 1965

Karlo Zvirynsky made this oil on canvas, Abstraction, sometime in the mid-twentieth century, and it's a real trip into the depths. Zvirynsky’s mark-making is raw, intuitive, almost like he’s wrestling with the paint, trying to pin down some elusive feeling. The palette is muted, dominated by blacks and grays, but then there are these flashes of blue, white, and rust that cut through the darkness like shards of light. The texture is rough, built up in layers, and you can almost feel the weight of each stroke. Look closely at that central column—it’s like a totem pole of the subconscious, with those geometric shapes stacked on top of each other. It reminds me a bit of Antoni Tàpies, in the way he used abstraction to explore existential themes. Ultimately, it’s a reminder that art isn’t about answers, it's about embracing the unknown.