From the Watch 1957

Tahir Salahov's "From the Watch" is full of the sun bleached colours of the coast, ochre and drab blues. I can almost feel the artist standing there, outside, squinting to see through the salty air. You get the feeling the painting came into being through a slow, evolving process of seeing. I wonder what it was like for Salahov standing on that pier, feeling the air and watching the workers. Was it a warm day, or a cold one? Those figures returning to shore embody a very strong mood – that end-of-day fatigue and relief. And then the paint – it's neither thin nor too thick, but just right, which speaks to the artist's familiarity with the medium. That seagull in the foreground, though – it's like a signature. Like so many painters before him, Salahov embraces ambiguity, allowing the work to speak in multiple voices, each colored by our own experiences.