Repassione per il cavallo di Torino. Trittico 2019

Lech Jankowski made this triptych, "Repassione per il cavallo di Torino", using a muted palette with small gestures that create a field of layered colours. I love how the painting seems to have emerged slowly, built from thin washes that blend like watercolour. I'm imagining Jankowski in the studio, reacting to the surface, making choices, and then changing them. The painting seems to be searching for something. Then there are these small white commas, almost like tears or little running figures. Each one is different – maybe this references the suffering of the horse of Turin? I can feel the artist searching for a way to express something with a kind of inchoate feeling. Think of Cy Twombly's scribbles, or maybe Antoni Tàpies's layered surfaces. Jankowski is part of this tradition of artists who allow the painting to embrace vulnerability, with the idea that art making is a constant conversation between artists across generations, inspiring us all to express something ambiguous and difficult.