Still life with aubergines 1911

Henri Matisse created this still life with aubergines, its date of creation is unknown. It's a puzzle of blues and purples, a world built from patterns. I can imagine Matisse moving things around, maybe not the actual objects, but the compositional space. It's like he's saying, "What if the wall was also the floor?" The flower motif seems to be on the floor but also creeping up the wall. What if the table cloth was a whirling, vibrant galaxy? The aubergines, dark and solid, anchor the whole scene with their humble shapes. It all comes together through the medium of paint, like a dance. I think of other artists and how they approached painting – it’s like we’re all in this ongoing conversation, swapping ideas across time. It's about embracing ambiguity, isn't it? The joy is that there are multiple interpretations, meanings that shift and change.