Symi (Thrown Drapery) 1978

Curator: Here we have David Ligare’s “Symi (Thrown Drapery)” from 1978. It’s an oil painting. My first impression? A disquieting, yet arresting juxtaposition of cloth and coastline. What’s your read, Editor? Editor: Disquieting, yes! It’s like a sheet ghost escaped a child’s imagination and is staging a drama against that breathtakingly beautiful Grecian coastline. I half expect it to vanish or morph into a seagull at any second. Curator: Interestingly, Ligare’s work often explores the interplay between classical form and contemporary realism, setting up tensions precisely like that. The suspended drapery could allude to ancient sculptures, updated to explore present ideas around form and even transience. Editor: That's it. It’s transient—a perfect symbol. And there’s something deliberately artificial about how perfectly frozen the cloth is, isn’t there? It's real but absolutely improbable, creating this dreamy feel that almost makes me seasick with longing. Curator: Seasick with longing? Editor: Well, not really seasick. But doesn't it conjure that aching beauty you feel in places where time seems to pause, where nature feels eternal and you just… aren’t? Curator: I understand that yearning, although my focus drifts toward how the image is constructed as a commentary. Ligare intentionally stages a dramatic event of cloth falling and, through painting, makes us consider how it creates the same forms we find and appreciate in landscape painting traditions. Editor: It definitely has a timeless quality, and you’re right, the fabric kind of mimics waves and hills. The shadow play almost convinces you it *could* be permanent. That contrast just intensifies the scene’s weird magnetism. He brilliantly marries a meticulous representation with a bold compositional absurdity. I still can't shake the ghost idea, though. Curator: Perhaps that reflects Ligare's successful bridging of the historical with the present; both permanence and transience, beauty and absence—there is space to appreciate both views within this work. Editor: So well put! Ligare gave us not just a visual spectacle, but also this subtle narrative, hinting at themes beyond what we immediately perceive. Makes you wanna linger by the sea, sheet-less of course, just to keep an eye on reality. Curator: Precisely!