O Almoço do Trolha 1950

Julio Pomar seems to have built "O Almoço do Trolha" with slabs of color. The ochres, browns, greens, and blacks suggest an earthy palette, and the act of painting itself feels solid. I feel for Pomar making this, figuring out how to turn feelings into something real, something that breathes. He wasn’t trying to copy something already out there; instead, he was inventing ways of showing the world to us. Look how he has built up layers, each stroke deliberate, constructing form and feeling simultaneously. The brushstrokes around the man's hands seem to tremble with labor and a sense of provision. It reminds me of other artists who are committed to bearing witness, like Käthe Kollwitz, but there’s also something uniquely Pomar about its directness. Artists are always in conversation, aren’t they? They are using their work to reply to one another. It shows us how painting can be a way of feeling, not just seeing. It’s a way of being in the world, uncertain but alive.