Vuelo De Medianoche 1936

Grace Pailthorpe made Vuelo De Medianoche, or Midnight Flight, with oil paint, and boy, does it take you on a trip! I love how Pailthorpe lays down the paint, kind of thin and watery, but with these super clear, hard edges that give the whole thing a dreamlike quality. The colors are so saturated, almost like a comic book, but not quite. Look at the way the blue of the background pushes forward, making the creature seem like it's floating right in front of you. And then there's that wild eye staring out from the orange head – it's both scary and strangely funny, like something out of a kid's monster movie. You can see echoes of surrealists like Max Ernst, but there's also a raw, almost childlike quality to it that's all Pailthorpe's own. It's a reminder that art doesn't always have to make perfect sense to be powerful.