Angels 1988

Adriana Varejão made this painting, Angels, with what looks like oil on canvas using soft, muted tones, almost as if the colors have been washed out by time or memory. This piece feels like a real investigation into the process of painting itself. There's a ghostly quality to the figures, as if they're emerging from the canvas rather than being placed on it. I’m particularly drawn to the way Varejão uses texture. The paint isn't applied smoothly, you know? It's dabbed and swirled, creating this sense of movement, like the angels are caught in a whirlwind of emotion. Look at the upper right corner, see how the colors blend and bleed into each other? That kind of blending feels really key to the overall sense of etherealness. I'm reminded a bit of some of Paula Rego’s looser figurative works. Both artists share this interest in exploring narrative through a kind of dreamlike lens. Ultimately, this is a work that seems to value the ambiguity of emotion over any definitive interpretation.