Untitled 2012

Paul du Toit made this untitled painting around 2012, and I just love that it feels both ancient and contemporary. The impasto is really built up, especially on the ochre areas, and I can imagine Paul really digging into that surface with his brush. There’s something so emotionally raw about it, a profile or face emerges, framed in blue, with one staring eye—I wonder if he was channeling some kind of inner turmoil or maybe something from the world around him? You know, I love paintings where you can almost feel the artist's struggle and resolve right there on the canvas. This piece really reminds me of work by artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cy Twombly, artists in an ongoing conversation across time, inspiring each other’s creativity. Painting is this embodied expression and I think here it embraces ambiguity. The surface gives the viewer space for multiple readings rather than one definitive meaning.