Mangalia Yard 1925

Nicolae Darascu made this oil painting, called Mangalia Yard, with a broken color palette, and it gives us a view into a place of daily life. I’m interested in the way he builds the scene with thick, juicy strokes. Look at the lower left corner, and you can see how the strokes of white, pink, and gray build up a sense of form, but it’s also like he's wrestling with the paint. It's a celebration of the stuff that paint is. The orange and red market produce in the foreground creates a lively texture that makes me want to touch the canvas. The whole scene is bathed in a hazy light, like a memory or a dream. It reminds me of some of the early Fauvist painters, like Derain, who also used color to create a sense of atmosphere and emotion. Ultimately, this is what painting is all about— not just representing the world, but transforming it through color and gesture.