Metaphysical Still Life with Triangle 1919

This painting by Giorgio Morandi is full of muted earthy browns, like something dug up from the ground. I imagine him working on it, shifting these objects around, lost in thought, giving everything a coat of paint. Morandi was clearly interested in something beyond just representing these objects. He’s investigating their essence. It's like he’s asking, what is the most distilled form of a vase, a sphere, a box? Look at that box. It’s so empty, yet it has such presence. And that sphere! Perfectly round. It’s like he is trying to reinvent the wheel. There is a quiet intensity to this painting. I bet Morandi spent hours arranging and painting these objects over and over, searching for some kind of truth about form, light, and space. Artists, like Morandi, have always looked to the past, reinterpreting and questioning the world around them. It’s all one big conversation across time. It inspires me, too, to keep questioning, keep searching, keep painting.