Still life with fruit 1956

Gregoire Boonzaier painted this Still Life with Fruit, sometime during his career, probably with oils, and you can really see the hand of the artist in it. The colours are earthy but somehow also bright, and the shapes are simple, just laid down, one next to the other. It's like he's trying to figure out what painting *is* as he goes along, which I really relate to. I love the way he’s handled the cloth, it almost looks like crumpled paper. See how he’s used these thick, juicy strokes of white and blue, letting the gaps in between become the shadows. There’s something so optimistic and playful in the way he’s built up this surface, like he's not afraid to make a mess, or leave things unresolved. The orange in the foreground just pops and the paint is applied so thickly you can almost feel the texture. Boonzaier was part of a generation of artists interested in a kind of accessible, everyday version of modernism, and I think there’s a parallel here with someone like Bonnard who found a similar kind of beauty in domestic spaces and the simple things of life. Ultimately, it's a reminder that art is a conversation and we are all part of it.