Capricieux 2014

Carlos Sablòn made this painting, Capricieux, probably recently, with oils on canvas. Just look at that landscape bathed in hazy blues and browns, framing a central figure with a presence that is both timeless and otherworldly. I wonder, what was Sablòn thinking when he decided to crown her with that peculiar headpiece? It’s as if a Renaissance portrait and a Surrealist dream got together and decided to have a baby. I'm thinking about the Old Masters, and how Sablòn riffs on their conventions. The composition is so studied, so classical, and yet the details – the monkey lurking in the shadows, the crown itself – inject this playful sense of the absurd. It’s clear Sablòn is participating in a long conversation with the history of painting, twisting and turning familiar forms into something that feels utterly new. Painting is about seeing and feeling, but it’s also about thinking. Sablòn makes a painting that isn’t just a picture but an idea.