Vase of Flowers 1900

Odilon Redon made this intimate still life, Vase of Flowers, with oil on canvas. The paint is applied in a deliberately rough, almost nonchalant manner. Redon wasn’t interested in the highly polished surfaces of academic painting; instead he wanted to emphasize the materiality of his chosen medium. Look at the way the background seems to be scrubbed on, and the visible brushstrokes that define the flowers. Notice the color palette, too, dominated by muted tones which lend an air of mystery to the composition. Redon was working at a time when rapid industrialization was transforming the art world. With new methods of production also came new materials, such as acrylic paint, or even the readymades. Yet he chose to work in a mode that was deliberately handcrafted, embracing the imperfections of a material-centered practice. In doing so, he was aligning himself with a longer tradition of artists who understood that meaning resides not just in the subject of a painting, but also in the way it is made.