Archimboldo 1945

Enrico Donati made this oil painting, Archimboldo, with a curious approach to both colour and form. There's something really gutsy about the way Donati just throws these colours down – greens, reds, yellows – letting them mingle and fight it out. It feels like he's not trying to control the chaos, but to embrace it, like he's trying to squeeze the world and its innards onto the canvas. Look at the mouth – it's like a geological formation, all those teeth rendered with such raw energy, like he's daring us to look away. It reminds me of what Guston was doing later, that kind of fearless exploration of form and feeling. Ultimately, this painting isn’t about answers; it's about the questions, the doubts, the messy, beautiful struggle of trying to make sense of it all.