Mediteraneean City 1931

Curator: Looking at Henri Catargi's "Mediterranean City" from 1931, what springs to mind for you? Editor: A fleeting dream, almost. It’s soft, bathed in sunlight, yet slightly melancholic. A place I feel I’ve half-remembered. What can you tell me about how it was created? Curator: Catargi captured this scene primarily in watercolor. There’s a definite sense of realism here, a style in line with much of his work, but a modernist twist informs his overall aesthetic choices. I feel the buildings feel stripped down to their essential form, a gentle simplification that highlights structure, rather than minute detail. Editor: And the texture that watercolor lends is key to the mood, wouldn't you say? The light hitting the buildings almost shimmers because of it. It is amazing what a master artist can do when he understands his medium so well, especially watercolour, the 'unforgiving' medium that rewards planning, and punishes mistakes.. This brings to the fore questions of value... Watercolour is typically perceived as cheaper, easier. I'd say it presents specific artistic challenges of its own! Curator: Exactly! Watercolour can look very simple, almost throwaway. I appreciate how he coaxes atmosphere out of such delicate washes. I wonder, what about the Mediterranean drew him? It feels personal, beyond a simple vista. Maybe a longing? I keep finding myself coming back to that single tree – a frail symbol of endurance. Editor: Speaking of labor, you think of the construction of those buildings, the human effort crystallized in stone, but also fading into soft-focus memory with that watercolour treatment...There is certainly a sense of history seeping through those subtle layers, what would we even see in such places, had it not been for this romantic glaze he offers us here? Curator: Perhaps, his way of immortalising those little pieces of the past for all of us… something that almost feels sacred. It leaves me with a distinct sense of quiet joy and a poignant reminder of simpler times, if not a subtle reflection on the human experience of longing to have them back, and immortalising the present we inhabit with a gentle nostalgic light of the future, looking at its past Editor: And the tension, for me, between the materiality of place and its idealization - a constant dynamic within the art world. A dynamic that, quite beautifully, he condenses into one watercolour illustration for our reflections!