Composition 1926

Félix Del Marle made this painting, with its muted blues and greens, sometime in the 20th century. It looks like a tightly wound design, where repeated forms generate out of each other. I get a sense of the artist’s hand carefully building layer upon layer. It must have been quite a challenge to keep track of all those lines and shapes. What was he thinking as he built this all-over composition? Was he searching for some kind of hidden image? Or was it about the process itself, of seeing how these forms would interlock and push against each other? That prominent zig-zagging form in the center has an energy to it; it feels like it is about to burst open. This feels related to the work of other artists who sought to capture the dynamism of the modern world. Ultimately, artists are in an ongoing exchange, building on each other’s discoveries and insights. Paintings like this are about embracing uncertainty and seeing where the process takes you.