Spring Evening 2020

Editor: Here we have "Spring Evening" by Iwo Zaniewski, painted in 2020, using oil and acrylic on canvas. The pervasive cool blue hue immediately gives me a slightly melancholic feeling, as though dusk is settling and casting long shadows, even though there's so much activity. What strikes you when you look at this piece? Curator: Oh, the blueness is definitely the initial draw, isn't it? It reminds me of early Chagall, that almost dreamlike state he captured. I see a memory here, not quite a photograph, but something more internal. The window we're looking through…or *are* we in the painting, alongside the figure at the table? Editor: That’s interesting. It definitely has a sort of flattened perspective, making the space feel ambiguous. Curator: Precisely! And the scene in the garden, figures moving through a remembered space. Almost as though we're seeing layers of time collapsed into one frame. Notice how the vibrant colors of the person inside is almost muted compared to the garden itself! Does the person create the scene as they see it, or vice versa? Editor: It almost feels as though the person is actively building the memory in front of us, perhaps creating the memory that is shown as we gaze outward. I do think that the colours in the background do call our attention outwards, pulling you in as you describe. Curator: Absolutely! Like a poem trying to distill the essence of an evening, you almost don’t want it to ever end. I feel like the artist did their job with aplomb. Editor: I agree. The personal touch with this "snapshot of a moment" brings a certain feeling with it. It really does open up questions about the subjective nature of memory and how it affects perception. Thanks for pointing all of this out!