Girl with a Skipping Rope 1945

Oscar Dominguez made this painting, Girl with a Skipping Rope, with oil, and it looks like, maybe, done in one shot. Look at the colours, those greens, yellows and blues, it is almost like a sign painters palette! It is all about the shapes and how they push against each other, rather than creating a realistic image. The paint is applied pretty thickly, which is a characteristic of a lot of surrealist painters, and you can see the texture of the brushstrokes. The surface is built up, almost like a relief. Take a look at the dark green lines on the teal skirt, they draw your eye down the figure. It feels like Dominguez is playing with how much we see, or rather how much information he gives us, and he is inviting us to join the dots. Dominguez and Picasso were buddies, and I feel like you can see a common language in how they both reduced forms, and played with perspective. Like all good paintings, it leaves you with more questions than answers.