Cuore (Portrait d'Edmundo d'Amicis) 1962

Eduardo Arroyo made this painting, called Cuore, using oil on canvas, and look at all those brushstrokes! It looks like a portrait of a man who is holding his heart in his hands. It is pink and bloody, so he may actually be holding his heart! I wonder what he might be thinking? The colors Arroyo uses are odd and it is a bit hard to make out exactly what is going on, so I can imagine he was exploring how color can communicate emotion. Those green, white, and red stripes that look like an Italian flag are repeated on either side of the painting, and they trap the figure in the center. The man is pale and has a frozen expression. I think Arroyo is reminding us of the work of artists like Munch and Ensor, who made painting into an act of intense feeling. Artists are always in conversation with each other, building on what came before, and finding new ways to express what it feels like to be alive in the world.