Aquarium 1923

Jindrich Styrsky made this painting called, *Aquarium* with oil paint and, well, I have no idea when! But I’m so curious about how artists use the medium of paint, pushing it around to construct different ways of experiencing the world. There’s a very particular part in the middle with a faded purplish form; it looks a bit like a whale but also like a stain, with three dark circles punctuating the form like buttons, or maybe eyes? The way the artist has rendered the form it's not exactly clear whether it is floating on the surface of the scene, or deep below, and that sense of ambiguity or uncertainty really interests me. Styrsky’s painting has a delicate touch, a light palette of greens, blues and yellows that evoke the feeling of being submerged. Like life itself the painting embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed meanings, and that's why I keep coming back to it. You could maybe see a similar approach in the work of Paul Klee?