Vacation-home 1955

Alekos Kontopoulos made this painting, Vacation-home, with oil, pushing around shapes of color, trying to nail down something true. You can see how the planes of ochre, orange, green and white overlap, like a half-remembered place. It looks like he was trying to recreate a place of safety, perhaps a childhood memory. I love the green gate, how it sits flat against the building while also seeming to float in front of it. It’s like he’s unsure about letting us in. Does he want to keep us out? What is he holding back? Think about the yellow bars of the gate, like sunshine. Each stroke, each smudge, is a record of his process. Painters are always having a conversation, aren’t we? We borrow from each other, steal ideas, and push back against what came before. We keep the language of painting alive, and make it new. Because painting is expression, it’s thought, it's meaning.