L`Accueil 1954

Maurice Esteve made ‘L’Accueil’ with lithographic crayon, tusche, and scraper, printed in colors on wove paper. It’s a really lovely piece of abstraction with strong shapes and bold colors like red, yellow, and blue. I can just imagine Esteve in his studio, wrestling with these shapes, trying to get them just right. Was it a struggle? Did it flow easily? The painting has a wonderful tension between flatness and depth, like the shapes are pushing and pulling against each other. The crayon marks give it a tactile, almost handmade feel, like you could reach out and touch the surface. It makes me think of Matisse, but with a bit more of an edge. Painting is like a conversation, and artists are always talking to each other across time. Esteve was part of a lineage, building on what came before, and inspiring those who came after. His work reminds us that painting is not just about representation, but about feeling, and experience, and about the joy of making.