Autumn Song 1906

Jacek Malczewski made Autumn Song in 1916, and it's a wild ride of layered paint and symbolic storytelling. Look at the way Malczewski builds up the surfaces, especially in the devilish figure's face. It's all about these visible, textured marks. The color palette is earthy, but with these jolts of intense emotion, the kind of stuff that just grabs you. He’s doing something really interesting with the paint itself. It’s neither very thick nor super thin, but there’s a materiality to it, like he’s wrestling with the stuff. And what's with that tiny bird? In the young woman’s hand, it has this delicate presence, like a fleeting thought you can't quite grasp. I'm reminded of artists like Paula Rego, who also aren't afraid to mix the beautiful with the grotesque, the personal with the mythical. In Autumn Song, Malczewski isn't just painting a picture, he's inviting us into a world that's always in flux.