Vallauris-Perthus 1969

Joaquim Rodrigo painted this, Vallauris-Perthus, with earth-toned colors, maybe straight out of the tube, scrubbed and stained into the canvas. There's something really playful about the way these shapes hover on the surface, they're so flat and graphic it’s like looking at a map. It’s as if Rodrigo laid out these pictograms in one layer, like a collage, each telling its own story while creating a shared atmosphere. I wonder what it was like for him to create this? Rodrigo isn’t afraid to leave space around each form, letting the composition breathe. The palette feels very connected to the earth, I can imagine the artist being drawn to the browns and tans of the landscape. There are also small dedications to the work of other artists, I see the names Giacometti and Picasso. Artists are constantly referencing and responding to one another. It’s like one big, long conversation across time, everyone adding their voice to the mix.