Still life with pears 1914

Tadeusz Makowski made this still life with pears with oil paint, and well, where and when, we don't exactly know, do we? Look at the way he's built up the painting with short, choppy strokes. It's like he's thinking out loud, each dab of paint a new thought. The surface has such a delicious, crusty texture, a real push-pull between those earthy reds and greens. See how the pears and apples sit in a bowl of green, but the green doesn't just stay in the bowl? It bleeds out, becoming the shadow, the space itself. It's kind of a wild move. And those bricky, rectangular marks in the background, they aren't just bricks, they're like a whole architectural system of mark-making. Makowski reminds me of Chaim Soutine, someone who also wasn't afraid to get messy and emotional with paint. Art isn't always about answers, it's about the conversation we have with the work.