Louise 2013

Dragan Ilić Di Vogo painted ‘Louise’ using smooth brushwork and a dreamy palette. The composition is built with circles that frame the ballerina and form a strange window into another world. I love how the artist has merged figuration and abstraction. I imagine Di Vogo was thinking about space, how to create a sense of depth and atmosphere while also flattening the image. There’s a push and pull between realism and something more surreal and geometric. The colours are soft, almost like a faded photograph. Look at the way the ballerina’s tutu dissolves into these hazy pools of pink and violet. It’s not just a dress, but an extension of the painting’s dreamlike quality. And that one red and white striped curve that is floating next to her! Painters are always talking to each other across time, riffing off ideas, reinventing how we see. This painting feels like a quiet conversation about beauty, form, and the mysteries of the artistic process. Nothing is fixed, and everything is open to interpretation.