Dawn 1940

Esteban Frances made ‘Dawn’ without indicating a specific date, and, looking at this piece, I can imagine him diving right in with a riot of color and line. I like to think about artists like Frances puzzling over how to arrange the shapes and colors so the whole thing comes alive. Check out that incredible eye staring back at us from the bottom – it anchors the painting, doesn't it? I can imagine the artist adding layer upon layer, each decision building on the last, creating this wild, almost dreamlike space. The colours and geometric patterns feel like they are constantly shifting. It’s like nothing is fixed, everything is in flux, in progress. It reminds me of other surrealists and abstract painters who were also trying to map the inner landscape of dreams and feelings. In a way, artists are always in conversation, picking up threads from the past and weaving them into something new. This painting invites us to see the world not as something fixed, but as a fluid, ever-changing reality.