The Posts 1910

Léon Spilliaert made this painting, The Posts, with what looks like gouache or watercolor, evoking a silent, dreamlike atmosphere. See how the whole image is built up from small marks, like tiny stitches? The flowing, almost hallucinatory water, or the sky which is made up of stripes, like ribbons. There is something about the way he has made these marks which suggests a kind of freedom, which is almost a mania. Then, against that constant movement, the dark vertical posts, and the figure, standing there. There is something a little awkward, perhaps naive about the way the figure is rendered, but that also has an emotional effect - it adds to the strange atmosphere of the painting. This reminds me of Hilma af Klint, another artist who explored spiritual dimensions in her art. Spilliaert invites us into a world where reality and imagination blur. The painting embraces the ambiguity, inviting us to bring our own interpretations and emotional responses to the forefront.