Paysage 1953

This is "Paysage," a landscape made in 1953 by Victor Brauner. The colors are striking, like a dream you can't quite grasp when you wake up. There's something about the way Brauner builds this world with simple shapes and bold outlines that feels both familiar and utterly strange. Look at how the purple field in the foreground jostles against the blue one, then the orange field behind! It feels like you could reach out and touch the thick, almost tactile paint. The sun, rendered as a simple yellow circle with a stark white outline, feels like a portal to another dimension. The bare trees with their orange fruit are especially interesting, each little mark seems deliberate and considered, like he’s capturing a feeling more than a visual reality. It makes me think about how artists like Marsden Hartley also used simple forms and symbolic color to create deeply personal landscapes. Art is an ongoing conversation, a constant dialogue across time and space.