David and Goliath 1955

Avigdor Arikha painted David and Goliath with oil on canvas, and its all about the process, like a snapshot of a thought in motion. The colors are muted, earthy, like old photographs or memories, with browns and grays dominating. But then, BAM! There are flashes of red and blue that catch your eye. The paint is applied thickly, impasto style, so you can almost feel the energy of his brushstrokes. Look at the way he’s rendered Goliath’s helmet, a swirl of reds and whites. The way the mark making renders the helmet, like the segments on an orange, gives the image a painterly quality. The texture isn't trying to hide anything, its like the painting is saying, "Here I am, raw and real!" Arikha reminds me a bit of Francis Bacon, in how he captures the raw, visceral energy of human experience. Like Bacon, he’s not afraid to leave things unresolved, embracing the ambiguity of form and meaning. It’s like he’s inviting us to participate in the painting’s becoming, rather than presenting us with a finished product.