Femmes o Mujeres 1942

Oscar Dominguez made this painting, Femmes o Mujeres, probably with oils, and it’s like he’s wrestling with a new way of seeing. The colours are muted, yet the shapes are sharp and angular. Look at how the white of the tablecloth spills into the ghostly figures in the background; it’s all edges and angles. Dominguez isn’t trying to trick you into thinking this is ‘real’, he is showing you how he sees or feels, which is a realer kind of ‘real’ anyway. I love how the red and pink of the figure bleed into the blue-grey ground, creating these awkward, tender zones. It reminds me a little of Picasso, or maybe Picabia, in the way it breaks down form but also builds up a new kind of weird, personal space. In the end, it’s not about one meaning, but about feeling your way through the messiness of seeing.