The Haunting Dancer 1911

Gino Severini made *The Haunting Dancer*, probably in the early 20th century, with oil paint and a pointillist technique. Imagine him, standing at the easel, carefully placing each dot, building the image bit by bit. What’s going on here? A masquerade? Or a fever dream? The painting feels like it’s vibrating, right? Severini uses these little dots to create a sense of movement and energy. Look at how the blues and blacks contrast with the pinks of the faces. I see a kind of fractured reality, like cubism but with a softer edge. There are women in hats, black cats with piercing eyes, and angular shapes that suggest a stage or maybe a crowded room. I think Severini must have loved the Fauves because he’s playing with the tension between representation and abstraction. He is part of a conversation that began with impressionism, and expanded by Seurat and Signac. Artists are always riffing off each other. Painting is, after all, a language, that is always shifting and changing.