Immortal Love 2008

Dragan Ilić Di Vogo made this painting, Immortal Love, with some kind of watercolour technique, but it's not dated, so we don't know when. The misty colours here make me think of what painting can be: a kind of alchemy, where the artist transforms base materials into something precious. You can see how the paint thins and thickens, creating a kind of topographical map of the artist’s hand. Look closely at the face of the male figure on the left. The way he is gazing down with such an intensity, makes me think about the tradition of history painting, but then you notice how his form is dissolving back into a kind of primordial soup. This feels important to the piece as a whole; nothing is fixed here, everything is in flux. I'm reminded of the phantasmic visions of Odilon Redon, and the way he managed to create an image which invites uncertainty and multiple readings. Art is like that.