Dawn 1940

Esteban Frances made "Dawn" without any dates, but I can tell you, looking at this painting is like looking at a dreamscape. It's a place where hard-edged abstraction meets this fluid, almost surreal sense of form, and it's all brought together by a really striking color palette. What really grabs me is how Frances plays with texture and surface. Some areas are built up with thick, opaque layers, while others are thinly washed, letting the colors bleed and blend, that eye for example. It's like he's not just painting an image, but he's also building a world, layer by layer. There’s a lot of surrealist influence here. And speaking of other artists, I can’t help but think of Matta when I look at this. They both have this way of creating these strange, otherworldly spaces that feel both familiar and totally alien. Art is a constant dialogue, right? A never-ending conversation across time. I can feel an embrace of ambiguity in this piece, there is no one way to read this painting.