Figure 1979

This is Nikos Nikolaou's "Figure," and it was painted, though the date remains a mystery, but what a fascinating tension of a painting caught in-between stages. The blue and brown planes sit back, allowing the off-white figures to sit just a little forward of the picture plane. But the thin lines that define these bodies, they're so tentative and unresolved, it feels like the painting is asking itself, "How do I emerge? What is my shape?" Look closely, and you'll see how the brushwork is light and almost dry, adding to the sense of fragility, like a memory fading or a story being whispered. It reminds me a little of Milton Avery's simplified forms and muted tones. In both, there's an embrace of uncertainty, a willingness to let the painting be a question rather than an answer. And that, to me, is what makes it so compelling.