Decorative Panel, Woman No. 2 1910

Alberto Magnelli made this panel, Woman No. 2, without a specified date, using some kind of printmaking process. The repeated floral pattern of the coat is so decorative; it almost flattens the figure of the woman into the background. I love how printmaking lends itself to a kind of meditative repetition, like an echo of a feeling. The colour palette is also super interesting! A bold mustard yellow dominates, while the green floral pattern creates a subtle tension with the ground. Then there's the purple of her dress, clashing just enough with the other elements. I notice how the texture of the piece looks slightly grainy, like the surface of a stone lithograph. For me, this evokes the tradition of early modernism and artists like Matisse, where flatness and pattern create their own kind of visual drama. Magnelli reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation, always borrowing and reinventing. So much can be said with such an ambiguous medium, leaving us to find our own narratives in the image.